The seventh Flajolet Lecture will be presented by Hsien-Kuei Hwang, Professor in the Institute of Statistical Science at Academia Sinica, at the 2026 AofA Conference in Munich, Germany.

The Flajolet Lecture Prize, established in 2014, honours the life and legacy of Philippe Flajolet, who championed analytic combinatorics and its applications in the analysis of algorithms. It is announced in odd-numbered years, and the Flajolet Lecture is delivered in even-numbered years. The next one will be in 2026 in Munich.

Philippe worked at INRIA near Paris. A few days after his passing in 2011, referring to a cartoon drawn by Philippe Jacquet in Asterix and Obelix style, INRIA published an obituary entitled “Algorithmix nous a quittés” (“Algorithmix has left us”). That title evokes the image of a chief standing on a shield and describes him perfectly. Thanks to his intellectual generosity and mathematical charisma, Philippe had created a Gallic tribe around the theme of algorithms—a tribe that cherished him, adored him, followed him, and learned from him. It thrived against all odds.

The Flajolet Lecture Prize committee consisted of Svante Janson (the chair), Mihyun Kang (from TU Graz), and me as the junior member. I was asked to announce the awardee. This year’s very, very deserving winner is Hsien-Kuei Hwang from Academia Sinica in Taiwan.

Hsien-Kuei obtained his Ph.D. in 1994 under Gallic tribe member Jean-Marc Steyaert from École Polytechnique in Paris. He analyzed almost every important data structure and algorithm under the sun, frequently using generating functions, Fourier analysis, and Mellin transforms. He was not satisfied until the last drop of magic potion was squeezed from the asymptotic dragon. He does not live life in the fast lane—he lives it in the complex plane.

Privately, Philippe Flajolet confessed his admiration for Hsien-Kuei’s technical ability. For example, Hsien-Kuei is well-known for his “quasi-power theorem”, an off-the-shelf central limit theorem for random variables whose moment-generating function is asymptotic to a suitably scaled analytic function. It is referred to in the literature as “Hwang’s quasi-power theorem”, thus eternalizing his name. Sections in the books by Flajolet & Sedgewick and Drmota are devoted to this result.

I got a sense of his vast knowledge when I spent a sabbatical year in Frankfurt, partially overlapping with Hwang’s sabbatical year there. Ralph Neininger and I used to joke: “You can ask Google, or you can ask Hwang.”

Most importantly, Hsien-Kuei pulled off a mini-Flajolet in Taiwan, creating and nourishing a large group of young Taiwanese researchers. Throughout his career, he remained modest, humble, approachable, and helpful—a regular guy and an example for the next generation. Not unexpectedly, a large fraction of the Analysis of Algorithms (AofA) community–many in the room today–respectfully signed his nomination letter.

So, Hsien-Kuei, we congratulate you and look forward to your lecture in Munich in 2026!