Breakthrough Prize

International scientific awards

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Award

The Breakthrough Prize

Awarded for| Outstanding contributions in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, and Mathematics
Presented by| Breakthrough Prize Board
First award| 2012; 13 years ago (2012)
Website| breakthroughprize.org

The Breakthrough Prizes are a set of international awards bestowed in three categories by the Breakthrough Prize Board in recognition of scientific advances.[1][2] The awards are part of several "Breakthrough" initiatives founded and funded by Yuri Milner and his wife Julia Milner, along with Breakthrough Initiatives and Breakthrough Junior Challenge.

* Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics
* Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
* Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. The Prizes have been sponsored by the personal foundations established by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Ma Huateng, Jack Ma, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki.[3] Committees of previous laureates choose the winners from candidates nominated in a process that is online and open to the public.[3]

Laureates receive $3 million each in prize money.[4] They attend a televised award ceremony designed to celebrate their achievements and inspire the next generation of scientists. As part of the ceremony schedule, they also engage in a program of lectures and discussions. Those that go on to make fresh discoveries remain eligible for future Breakthrough Prizes.[3]

Both the 2023 and 2024 ceremonies were held in Los Angeles at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.[5]

## Trophy

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The trophy was created by artist Olafur Eliasson. Like much of Eliasson's work, the sculpture explores the common ground between art and science. It is molded into the shape of a toroid, recalling natural forms found from black holes and galaxies to seashells and coils of DNA.[6]

## Ceremonies

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#  | Ceremony  | Date  | Year  | Host(s)  | Network  | Site

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1st  | 2013 Fundamental Physics Prize Ceremony  | March 20, 2013  | 2012  | Morgan Freeman | None  | Geneva, Switzerland
2nd  | 2014 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony  | December 12, 2013  | 2013  | Kevin Spacey | Science Channel | Hangar One, Mountain View, California
3rd  | 2015 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony  | November 9, 2014  | 2014  | Seth MacFarlane | Discovery Channel & Science Channel (U.S.)
BBC World News (worldwide)
4th  | 2016 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony  | November 8, 2015  | 2015  | National Geographic
FOX
5th  | 2017 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony  | December 4, 2016  | 2016  | Morgan Freeman
6th  | 2018 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony  | November 3, 2017  | 2017  | National Geographic
7th  | 2019 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony  | November 4, 2018  | 2018  | Pierce Brosnan
8th  | 2020 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony  | November 3, 2019  | 2019  | James Corden
9th  | 2023 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony  | April 15, 2023  | 2020–2022  | YouTube | Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Hollywood, Los Angeles
10th  | 2024 Breakthrough Prize Ceremony  | April 13, 2024  | 2023

## 2025 ceremony controversy

[edit]

During the 2025 ceremony, Seth Rogen, who was presenting a physics prize alongside Edward Norton, attracted attention with some unscripted jokes regarding the science policy of the second Donald Trump administration. They appeared to target some figures of the tech oligarchy linked to the Breakthrough Prize.[7] He stated:[8]

> "And it’s amazing that others in this room underwrote electing a man who, in the last week, single-handedly destroyed all of American science."

and:

> "It’s amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320 million and RFK Jr, very fast."

The comments were edited out from the Youtube broadcast, which aired a week later.[9] A spokesperson for the Breakthrough Prize Foundation said, “This year’s ceremony lasted longer than the prior few years, and several edits were made in order to meet the originally planned run time.” [10]

## See also

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* Breakthrough Initiatives
* Breakthrough Starshot

## References

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1. ^ "$22m science prize winners announced". BBC News. 2015-11-09. Retrieved 2018-11-12.
2. ^ Knapp, Alex. "2022 Breakthrough Prizes Announced: mRNA Vaccine Pioneers Awarded $3 Million". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-09-13.
3. ^ a b c "Breakthrough Prize – About". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved 2020-12-17.
4. ^ "The Breakthrough Prize | Office of Research". www.research.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-22.
5. ^ "Breakthrough Prize". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved 2025-03-22.
6. ^ "Breakthrough Prize: Trophy". Breakthrough Prize. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
7. ^ "Seth Rogen's 'Amazing' Trump Joke Gets Cut By Zuckerberg-Backed Awards Show". HuffPost. 2025-04-16. Retrieved 2025-05-08.
8. ^ Sancton, Julian (2025-04-15). "Seth Rogen's Criticism of Silicon Valley's Support for Trump Was Cut From the "Full" Stream of Breakthrough Prize". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2025-05-08.
9. ^ Taylor, Derrick Bryson (2025-04-16). "Seth Rogen's Trump Jokes Are Edited Out of Awards Broadcast". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-05-08.
10. ^ Sancton, Julian (2025-04-15). "Seth Rogen's Criticism of Silicon Valley's Support for Trump Was Cut From the "Full" Stream of Breakthrough Prize". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2025-05-08.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website

* v
* t
* e

Breakthrough Prize laureates

Mathematics|

* Simon Donaldson, Maxim Kontsevich, Jacob Lurie, Terence Tao and Richard Taylor (2015)
* Ian Agol (2016)
* Jean Bourgain (2017)
* Christopher Hacon, James McKernan (2018)
* Vincent Lafforgue (2019)
* Alex Eskin (2020)
* Martin Hairer (2021)
* Takuro Mochizuki (2022)
* Daniel A. Spielman (2023)
* Simon Brendle (2024)
* Dennis Gaitsgory (2025)

Fundamental
physics|

* Nima Arkani-Hamed, Alan Guth, Alexei Kitaev, Maxim Kontsevich, Andrei Linde, Juan Maldacena, Nathan Seiberg, Ashoke Sen, Edward Witten (2012)
* Special: Stephen Hawking, Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti (ATLAS), Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joseph Incandela (CMS) and Lyn Evans (LHC) (2013)
* Alexander Polyakov (2013)
* Michael Green and John Henry Schwarz (2014)
* Saul Perlmutter and members of the Supernova Cosmology Project; Brian Schmidt, Adam Riess and members of the High-Z Supernova Team (2015)
* Special: Ronald Drever, Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss and contributors to LIGO project (2016)
* Yifang Wang, Kam-Biu Luk and the Daya Bay team, Atsuto Suzuki and the KamLAND team, Kōichirō Nishikawa and the K2K / T2K team, Arthur B. McDonald and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory team, Takaaki Kajita and Yōichirō Suzuki and the Super-Kamiokande team (2016)
* Joseph Polchinski, Andrew Strominger, Cumrun Vafa (2017)
* Charles L. Bennett, Gary Hinshaw, Norman Jarosik, Lyman Page Jr., David Spergel (2018)
* Special: Jocelyn Bell Burnell (2018)
* Charles Kane and Eugene Mele (2019)
* Special: Sergio Ferrara, Daniel Z. Freedman, Peter van Nieuwenhuizen (2019)
* The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (2020)
* Eric Adelberger, Jens H. Gundlach and Blayne Heckel (2021)
* Special: Steven Weinberg (2021)
* Hidetoshi Katori and Jun Ye (2022)
* Charles H. Bennett, Gilles Brassard, David Deutsch, Peter W. Shor (2023)
* John Cardy and Alexander Zamolodchikov (2024)

Life sciences|

* Cornelia Bargmann, David Botstein, Lewis C. Cantley, Hans Clevers, Titia de Lange, Napoleone Ferrara, Eric Lander, Charles Sawyers, Robert Weinberg, Shinya Yamanaka and Bert Vogelstein (2013)
* James P. Allison, Mahlon DeLong, Michael N. Hall, Robert S. Langer, Richard P. Lifton and Alexander Varshavsky (2014)
* Alim Louis Benabid, Charles David Allis, Victor Ambros, Gary Ruvkun, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier (2015)
* Edward Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, John Hardy, Helen Hobbs and Svante Pääbo (2016)
* Stephen J. Elledge, Harry F. Noller, Roeland Nusse, Yoshinori Ohsumi, Huda Zoghbi (2017)
* Joanne Chory, Peter Walter, Kazutoshi Mori, Kim Nasmyth, Don W. Cleveland (2018)
* C. Frank Bennett and Adrian R. Krainer, Angelika Amon, Xiaowei Zhuang, Zhijian Chen (2019)
* Jeffrey M. Friedman, Franz-Ulrich Hartl, Arthur L. Horwich, David Julius, Virginia Man-Yee Lee (2020)
* David Baker, Catherine Dulac, Dennis Lo, Richard J. Youle [de] (2021)
* Jeffery W. Kelly, Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman, Shankar Balasubramanian, David Klenerman and Pascal Mayer (2022)
* Clifford P. Brangwynne, Anthony A. Hyman, Demis Hassabis, John Jumper, Emmanuel Mignot, Masashi Yanagisawa (2023)
* Carl June, Michel Sadelain, Sabine Hadida, Paul Negulescu, Fredrick Van Goor, Thomas Gasser, Ellen Sidransky and Andrew Singleton (2024)

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