Stories
17-Year-Old Student Wins $250,000 for Solving Century-Old Geometry Mystery
M
Moneycontrol•09-10-2026, 19:21
17-Year-Old Student Wins $250,000 for Solving Century-Old Geometry Mystery
- •Connor Hill, a 17-year-old student from Pennsylvania, won first place and $250,000 at the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search.
- •Hill wrote a computer program using Python and the Wolfram Language to catalog noble polyhedra, proving the existence of 146 isolated examples and two infinite families.
- •His work reduces an endless geometric search into a finite number of classes by relating their existence to the roots of cubic polynomials.
- •If verified through peer review, Hill's computer-assisted proof will resolve a mathematical problem that has remained open for more than a century.
Key Questions Answered
Connor Hill won first place and a $250,000 prize at the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search held in Washington, D.C. for his computer-assisted geometry project.
Hill proved through his computer program that there are exactly 146 isolated noble polyhedra along with two infinite families, which included 85 previously undiscovered shapes.
No, Hill's computer-assisted proof is currently a preprint that has not yet been peer reviewed, though he released open-source code and 3D models for verification.
