Justin Sun Prize’s New Round Honors Human–AI Collaboration on Erdős Problems
Geneva, Switzerland — October 5, 2026 — The Office of Justin Sun today announced the newest recipients of the Justin Sun Prize: independent researcher Wouter van Doorn, mathematics Ph.D. student Quanyu Tang, and mathematics researcher Yanyang Li from Nanjing’s Southeast University, recognized for contributions spanning six Erdős problems. Wouter van Doorn is an independent number theorist who began researching mathematics as an undergraduate in 2010 and continued collaborating and publishing after leaving academia following his master’s degree. Quanyu Tang (汤泉宇) is a mathematics Ph.D. student at the University of Science and Technology of China whose research spans number theory, combinatorics and AI-assisted mathematical discovery. Erdős problems are mathematical questions posed or popularized by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős about numbers, patterns and other mathematical structures. Often simple to state but difficult to solve, they have helped shape research in number theory and combinatorics, with some remaining open for decades. The Erdős catalog, compiled and maintained by Thomas Bloom, a mathematician and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, has more than 1200 problems. Van Doorn and Tang worked with Yanyang Li, from Southeast University’s School of Mathematics in Nanjing, to solve Erdős Problem #650, determining exactly how many integers can always be matched to distinct multiples within a specified interval. Van Doorn also produced computer-checkable proofs in Lean, software for verifying mathematical reasoning, for #369, concerning consecutive integers with restricted prime factors; #457, about whether a short run of consecutive integers can collectively contain every prime in a given range; and #469, concerning whether the reciprocals of a special class of numbers expressible as sums of their divisors add to a finite total.
Key Takeaways
- Geneva, Switzerland — October 5, 2026 — The Office of Justin Sun today announced the newest recipients of the Justin Sun Prize: independent researcher Wouter van Doorn, mathematics Ph.D.
- student Quanyu Tang, and mathematics researcher Yanyang Li from Nanjing’s Southeast University, recognized for contributions spanning six Erdős problems.
- Wouter van Doorn is an independent number theorist who began researching mathematics as an undergraduate in 2010 and continued collaborating and publishing after leaving academia following his master’s degree.
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