Co-initiated in 2007 by Dr. Henry Cheng, Chairman and Executive Director of New World Development Co. Ltd. and Professor Shing-Tung Yau, New World Mathematics Awards (NWMA) aims to select and encourage outstanding Chinese mathematical students worldwide in their pursuit of mathematical truth, and make contribution to the development of mathematics in China and the rest of the world. NWMA is a triennial event coinciding with the ICCM. The evaluation and selection of NWMA winners takes place on an annual basis, and the Award Ceremony, on a triennial basis. So far, it has been held successfully for five times, and discovered a group of outstanding young talents in Fundamental Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Probability and Statistics, Computational Mathematics, Operational Research and Control, etc. Some winners have now become young leaders in mathematics.

Since the Award has been established, 1057 students from more than 200 colleges and universities in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as the rest of the world have participated in the NWMA, and 193 students have won awards. 80% of the winners are pursuing advanced studies or teaching at prestigious universities such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Stanford University, and UC Berkeley; some of them have now become the leaders in mathematics. NWMA has become an important reference for admission of talents by prestigious research institutes and universities.