Fields taught for two years at Johns Hopkins before joining the faculty of Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Disillusioned with the state of mathematical research in North America at the time, he left for Europe in 1891, locating primarily in Berlin, Göttingen and Paris, where he associated with some of the greatest mathematical minds of the time, including Karl Weierstrass, Felix Klein, Ferdinand Georg Frobenius and Max Planck.

He began publishing papers on a new topic, algebraic functions, which would prove to be the most fruitful research field of his career.

Back in the country of his birth, he worked tirelessly to raise the status of mathematics within academic and public circles.

Fields began planning the award in the late 1920s but, due to deteriorating health, never saw the implementation of the medal in his lifetime.