Hannah Fry wins Leelavati Prize
Hannah Fry has been awarded the Leelavati Prize at this year's International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM). The Leelavati Prize is awarded every four years by the International Mathematical Union (IMU) and Infosys for outstanding contributions for increasing public awareness of mathematics.
According to the prize citation, Fry was awarded the Prize "for her creative approach to communicating that mathematics is very powerful and also a lot of fun, and for her uncanny skill to attract particularly
girls and young women to mathematics. Her work has already influenced many millions and promises
to inspire many more." The citation also mentions Fry's RI Christmas Lectures entitled Secrets and Lies – The Hidden Power of Maths, the BBC series The Joy of Data, her film Making sense of cancer, as well as the TED talk that started it all off, The mathematics of love.
"There is no higher organisation [than the IMU] to be recognised by as a mathematician — this is the ultimate," Fry told us in the run-up to the ICM (you can listen to the interview in this podcast). The Leelavati Medal is only one in a long list of prizes from across the full spectrum of media. For example, Fry has won an Emmy for the TV series The Future with Hannah Fry and a Webby award for her podcast The rest is science with Michael Stevens. She has also been named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential digital creators of 2026. In addition Fry has won a Christopher Zeeman Medal and the Royal Society David Attenborough Award.
Fry is no stranger to us here at Plus. In 2025 she joined us in Cambridge as its first Professor for the Public Understanding of Mathematics, a move she announced at a conference we organised at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences. We are currently pursuing research into mathematics communication and AI together with Fry.
To hear Fry talk about maths, communication, and more, listen to the podcasts below.
The Leelavati Prize 2026: Hannah Fry
We chat to Fry about the Leelavati Prize, the role of mathematics in culture, and her favourite experience as a maths communicator.
Hannah Fry: Mathematics for the people
This podcast was recorded when Fry announced she was coming to Cambridge as its first Professor for the Public Understanding of Mathematics. She told us about her own mathematical research, why she thinks mathematicians have a duty to engage the public, and shares one of her favourite mathematical moments. You can also read an article version of the interview.
This content was produced as part of the collaboration between plus.maths.org and the London Mathematical Society and with kind support of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.
