June Huh becomes 1st scholar of Korean descent to win Fields Medal

June Huh, a Korean American mathematician and professor at Princeton University, was named as a recipient for this year's Fields Medal, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of mathematics.”

The 39-year-old professor, who also serves as a distinguished professor of mathematics at the Korea Institute for Advanced Study, became the first-ever scholar of Korean descent to win the award handed down by the International Mathematical Union every four years.

Huh was born in 1983 in California but grew up in South Korea. He majored in physics and astronomy as an undergraduate at Seoul National University (SNU) and studied mathematics at the university's graduate school. Huh obtained his mathematics Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2014.