From left to right: Xavier Cabré, Joaquim Ortega (photo by Xènia Fuentes, UB), and Xavier Tolsa.
Three researchers affiliated with the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM), Xavier Cabré, Joaquim Ortega-Cerdà and Xavier Tolsa, have been invited to speak at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2026 in Philadelphia. Their participation is a significant recognition of their contributions to partial differential equations, analysis and geometric measure theory, and reflects the growing international impact of the Catalan mathematical community.
The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), to be held in Philadelphia in 2026, is the most prestigious event in the mathematical sciences. Being invited to speak at the ICM is one of the highest distinctions in the field. In this edition, three researchers affiliated with the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM) have been selected as invited speakers: Xavier Cabré, Joaquim Ortega-Cerdà, and Xavier Tolsa, who has been invited as a plenary speaker.
Xavier Cabré, Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and ICREA researcher affiliated with the CRM, will deliver a talk in the Partial Differential Equations section. His work in nonlinear PDEs has earned international recognition, particularly his contribution to solving a long-standing open problem posed by Haim Brezis.
“It’s an honour, of course,” Cabré explains. “Beyond my past contributions to PDEs, this invitation is especially meaningful to me, as I believe it’s connected to a paper I published in 2020 in Acta Mathematica, where I solved a problem posed by Haim Brezis that I had been working on since 1996, making progress through partial results until the final resolution in 2020.”
Reflecting on the broader impact, he adds: “This recognition highlights the progress made by the Catalan mathematical community in recent decades, especially since several Catalan researchers were invited to the ICM 2026. It also serves as motivation for young mathematicians here, who are already showing, as hoped and expected, a much higher level than my own generation.”
“This edition features more Catalan speakers than ever before. I believe it reflects the level of research we’ve reached as a community”
Joaquim Ortega-Cerdà, Professor at the University of Barcelona and member of the CRM, will speak in the Analysis section. His research in potential theory, function spaces, and interpolation problems has established deep connections between harmonic analysis, complex geometry, and spectral theory.
“It’s a great honour, and I feel truly flattered,” says Ortega. “I’ve never participated in an International Congress of Mathematicians, and I’m excited about this opportunity. Mathematics also has a strong social component; beyond the private joy of solving a problem, it’s always gratifying to receive recognition from your peers. I’m also looking forward to sharing some of the problems I’ve been working on recently and gaining a broad overview of the latest developments and trends in modern mathematics.”
On the presence of Catalan researchers at the event, he notes, “This edition features more Catalan speakers than ever before. I believe it reflects the level of research we’ve reached as a community and the international visibility that our predecessors worked so hard to build.”
Xavier Tolsa, ICREA Professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and affiliated researcher at the CRM, has been selected as a plenary speaker, a recognition reserved for mathematicians whose work has had an extraordinary impact across the discipline. A recipient of the Rei Jaume I Prize and the Catalan National Research Award, Tolsa is widely recognised for his groundbreaking contributions to geometric measure theory and classical problems in analysis.
In addition, other mathematicians with ties to the Catalan community or the CRM will also be featured at the congress. David Asperó, a logician from Catalonia and professor at the University of East Anglia, has been invited to speak in the Logic and Foundations section. Afonso Bandeira, researcher at ETH Zurich and member of the CRM Scientific Advisory Board, will also give a talk in the Combinatorics and Optimization section.
The participation of these researchers highlights the strength and international standing of mathematical research carried out in Catalonia.
The full list of invited speakers is available at the following link: ICM 2026 Speakers.
Xavier Cabré is an ICREA Research Professor and Chair in Applied Mathematics at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). Born in Barcelona, he earned his PhD at the Courant Institute (New York University) under the supervision of Louis Nirenberg, and received the Kurt Friedrichs Prize in 1995. He has held research positions at institutions such as the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and the University of Texas at Austin. Cabré is internationally recognised for his work in partial differential equations, and was elected Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in its inaugural class (2012).
Joaquim Ortega-Cerdà is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Barcelona, where he has held a faculty position since 1997. He earned his PhD at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and has held research positions at institutions such as the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the Mittag-Leffler Institute, the Center for Advanced Studies in Oslo, and the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics. Invited speaker at the European Congress of Mathematics in 2016, his research lies in complex analysis in one and several variables, with a focus on the inhomogeneous Cauchy-Riemann equation, Bergman kernels, and the structure of zero sets, sampling and interpolating sequences. His recent interests include Dirichlet series and the study of random point processes and optimal configurations.
Xavier Tolsa is an ICREA Research Professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where he works in the field of mathematical analysis. His research focuses on harmonic analysis, potential theory, and geometric measure theory, with particular interest in the interplay between analytic concepts (such as analytic capacity or harmonic measure) and geometric properties like rectifiability. Tolsa has made significant contributions to longstanding open problems, including the relationship between analytic capacity and curvature of measures, the David–Semmes problem, and the structure of singular sets in free boundary problems. His work is widely recognised for bridging deep theoretical questions across dimensions.
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