The Office of Justin Sun has announced the first recipients of the Justin Sun Prize, an academic initiative supporting advances in mathematics and AI-assisted scientific discovery. The 2026 awards recognize independent researcher Wouter van Doorn, mathematics Ph.D. student Quanyu Tang, and researcher Yanyang Li from Southeast University in Nanjing for contributions to solving six Erdős problems.
Erdős problems are mathematical questions posed or popularized by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős about numbers, patterns, and mathematical structures. Often simple to state but difficult to solve, these problems have shaped research in number theory and combinatorics, with some remaining open for decades. The Erdős catalog contains more than 1,200 problems.
Notable Solutions
Van Doorn, an independent number theorist who continued research after leaving academia following his master's degree, produced computer-checkable proofs in Lean for four problems. These include Problem #369 concerning consecutive integers with restricted prime factors, Problem #457 about whether a short run of consecutive integers can contain every prime in a given range, and Problem #469 regarding reciprocals of numbers expressible as sums of their divisors.
Van Doorn collaborated with Tang and Li on Problem #650, determining how many integers can be matched to distinct multiples within a specified interval. Tang independently resolved Problem #1044, establishing a lower limit for boundary lengths of polynomial-defined regions, and contributed to Problem #1196 alongside Li and a broader team.
Human-AI Collaboration
The work on Problem #650 demonstrated how human judgment and AI can complement each other. ChatGPT helped develop the proof strategy, while Aristotle, an AI system for mathematical reasoning, resolved a gap during Lean formalization. The researchers then simplified the argument and completed the final proofs.
The Justin Sun Prize links clearly defined mathematical challenges to machine-verifiable proof, operating on principles of openness, public benefit, and open-source access. Prize payments will be made in either USDT on TRON or USDC on Ethereum at the recipient's discretion.
