The Leelavati Prize 2026: Hannah Fry

Hannah Fry, Cambridge's first Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics, 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 and Infosys for outstanding contributions for increasing public awareness of mathematics.

We talked to Hannah in the run-up to the ICM about how she feels about being awarded the prize, the role of mathematics in culture, and her favourite experience as a maths communicator.

As Hannah puts it, "I feel as though there are these wonderful secrets that are completely invisible to almost everybody in the world who are mathematicians and it doesn’t make sense to me we would keep them to ourselves — I feel as though I have this really good bit of gossip that I just want to share."

To hear Hannah talk about her favourite mathematical moment, which is mentioned in this episode, see this podcast recorded when she became Professor of the Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.

You can see the part of Hannah's RI Christmas lecture mentioned in this podcast on YouTube.

The photos of Hannah are courtesy of the Simons Foundation.