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

Breakthrough Initiatives Breakthrough Initiatives is a science-based program founded in 2015 and funded by Julia and Yuri Milner, also of Breakthrough Prize, to search for extraterrestrial intelligence over a span of at least 10 years. The program is divided into multip ...

and Breakthrough Junior Challenge. *

Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics is an annual award of the Breakthrough Prize series announced in 2013. It is funded by Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg and others. The annual award comes with a cash gift of $3 million. The Breakthrough Prize ...

* Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics * Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by

Sergey Brin Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (; born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and businessman who co-founded Google with Larry Page. He was the president of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc., until stepping down from the role on D ...

, Priscilla Chan and

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born May 14, 1984) is an American businessman who co-founded the social media service Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms, of which he is the chairman, chief executive officer, and controlling sharehold ...

, Yuri and Julia Milner, and

Anne Wojcicki Anne E. Wojcicki ( ; born July 28, 1973) is an American entrepreneur. She is known for co-founding the personal genomics company 23andMe. Early life and education Wojcicki was born in Palo Alto, California, the youngest of three sisters: Susan W ...

. The Prizes have been sponsored by the personal foundations established by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg,

Ma Huateng Ma Huateng (, born October 29, 1971) is a Chinese businessman, investor and philanthropist who is the co-founder, chairperson and chief executive officer (CEO) of Tencent, one of the most valuable companies in East Asia, one of the largest int ...

Jack Ma Ma Yun (; born 10 September 1964), or more commonly referred as Jack Ma, is a Chinese businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of the Jack Ma Foundation, and co-founder of Alibaba Group and Yunfeng Capital. As of May 2025, Ma's ne ...

, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. Committees of previous laureates choose the winners from candidates nominated in a process that is online and open to the public. Laureates receive $3 million each in prize money. 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. Both the 2023 and 2024 ceremonies were held in Los Angeles at the

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a film museum opened in 2021 located in Los Angeles, California. The first large-scale museum of its kind in the United States, it houses more than 13 million objects, and is dedicated to the history, sc ...

Trophy

The trophy was created by artist

Olafur Eliasson Olafur Eliasson (; born 5 February 1967) is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience. In 1995, ...

. 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 In mathematics, a toroid is a surface of revolution with a hole in the middle. The axis of revolution passes through the hole and so does not intersect the surface. For example, when a rectangle is rotated around an axis parallel to one of its ...

, recalling natural forms found from black holes and galaxies to seashells and coils of DNA.

Ceremonies

2025 ceremony controversy

During the 2025 ceremony,

Seth Rogen Seth Aaron Rogen (; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Known primarily for his comedic Leading actor, leading man roles in films, the accolades he has received include nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, ...

, who was presenting a physics prize alongside

Edward Norton Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. After graduating from Yale College in 1991 with a degree in history, he worked for a few months in Japan before moving to New York City ...

, 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. He stated:

"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. 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.” However, it's unclear whether anything else was edited out.

References

External links

* {{Breakthrough Prize laureates International academic awards Alphabet Inc. International science and technology awards Awards established in 2012 Yuri Milner

Trophy

Ceremonies

2025 ceremony controversy

See also

References

External links