Developers of the FEniCS Project awarded the 2026 EMS/ECMI Lanczos Prize
A team of twelve researchers is recognised for revolutionising the implementation of the finite element method through the open-source FEniCS Project.
Developers of the FEniCS Project, recipients of the 2026 EMS/ECMI Lanczos Prize. Image courtesy of the FEniCS team.
The European Mathematical Society (EMS) and the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry (ECMI) are pleased to announce that the 2026 EMS/ECMI Lanczos Prize for Mathematical Software has been awarded to the developers of the FEniCS Project: Martin S. Alnæs, Igor A. Baratta, Joseph P. Dean, Jørgen S. Dokken, Michal Habera, Jack S. Hale, Anders Logg, Chris N. Richardson, Marie E. Rognes, Matthew W. Scroggs, Nathan Sime and Garth N. Wells.
The prize citation reads: “For revolutionising the implementation of the finite element method.”
About the Lanczos Prize
Established in 2023 by EMS and ECMI, the EMS/ECMI Lanczos Prize for Mathematical Software recognises outstanding mathematical software with important applications in mathematics, science, engineering, society or industry. The prize is awarded to a mathematician or scientist, or to a group of mathematicians and scientists, and is restricted to software whose source code is publicly available for scrutiny.
The award consists of a certificate and a cash prize of €3000. The 2026 prize will be presented during the 23rd ECMI Conference on Industrial and Applied Mathematics in Kaunas, Lithuania, where representatives of the FEniCS team will present their work.
Why FEniCS was selected
The 2026 prize recognises the FEniCS Project, an open-source platform for solving partial differential equations using the finite element method. FEniCS allows researchers to express mathematical models in a high-level form close to their mathematical formulation, while automatically generating efficient computational code.
The Prize Committee highlighted the wide use of FEniCS across science and engineering, its role in solving difficult industrial problems, and the elegance of its mathematical abstraction:
“It makes it possible for researchers to implement new finite element discretisations with abstractions that match the mathematics very closely, and require an order of magnitude less code than conventional approaches.”
Reflections from the FEniCS team
The FEniCS team said that receiving the Lanczos Prize is a meaningful recognition of the project’s long-term impact:
“We’re delighted to receive the Lanczos Prize. It means a lot to be recognised for the difference that FEniCS has made to research and to a wide community of users. The recognition is very motivating for developers of FEniCS to continue its development with new ideas and features, and to reach ever wider groups.”
The team also emphasised the role of the wider open-source community in shaping the project over more than two decades:
“We’re proudest of the reach that FEniCS has across research, industry and education, and the strength of the community that has developed around it.”
A key innovation of FEniCS has been the use of a domain-specific language for representing finite element problems at a high level of abstraction, closely mirroring mathematical notation. Combined with automatic code generation and a Python interface, this made it possible for users to write concise programs that remain close to the mathematics while producing efficient solvers.
Looking ahead
Looking ahead, the team is particularly excited about developments for GPU computing, while retaining the mathematical abstraction that characterises FEniCS. They also point to new tools being built on top of FEniCS, including AI/ML approaches and solvers for challenging industrial problems.
Related links
- FEniCS Project
- EMS/ECMI Lanczos Prize for Mathematical Software
- ECMI 2026 Conference
- Download the press release