SFI External Professor Mark Newman (University of Michigan) has been awarded the 2026 John von Neumann Prize from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for his contributions to the theoretical and algorithmic foundations of network science and their application to real-world systems.
The John von Neumann Prize is awarded annually to an individual for outstanding and distinguished contributions to applied mathematics and for the effective communication of those ideas to the broader community. Established in 1959, the prize honors the legacy of mathematician John von Neumann and is among SIAM’s most distinguished awards.
Newman is recognized for advancing the understanding of structure in complex networks and for developing widely used algorithms to identify and measure that structure. “It’s a tremendous honor to receive this prize,” Newman says. “I see it not only as recognition of my work, but also of the growing field of network science.”
His research spans a wide range of approaches to network science, including mathematical models of network structure, network analysis algorithms, community detection, and applications to a range of practical problems spanning physics, computer science, biology, and the social sciences.
Newman will officially receive the prize and deliver the associated lecture at the 2026 SIAM Annual Meeting, taking place July 6–10, 2026, in Cleveland, Ohio.