Martin Hairer has invigorated and advanced the field of stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) by providing a toolkit for addressing these previously thought inaccessible problems. Martin’s work is also furthering the more general areas of stochastic analysis — a part of mathematics concerned with random processes — and stochastic dynamics.

His breakthrough approach to the nonlinear Kardar-Parisi-Zhang SPDE allowed him to mathematically resolve the meaning of this equation and its solutions. Subsequently, he used his ideas to create the theory of regularity structures, which provides a way to tackle a broader class of SPDEs.

Martin has been awarded a number of major prizes for his contributions to the understanding of SPDEs, including the 2013 Fermat Prize and the 2014 Fields Medal — the most prestigious prize in mathematics. Beyond mathematics, Martin is also the developer of a popular audio editing software programme for the Mac.