Vaughan Jones discovers in 1984 a new polynomial invariant for knots and links — the so-called Jones polynomial — while investigating von Neumann algebras and operator algebras, an area in principle completely unrelated to classical knot theory. The finding surprises the mathematical community by revealing an unexpected connection between two fields considered independent, and opens later lines of research that would connect knot theory to theoretical physics, in particular to the topological quantum field theory developed by Edward Witten. Jones received the Fields Medal in 1990.