Breakthrough Prizes Reward Achievements in Genetics, Particle Physics and Geometry

The ceremony held at NASA’s Ames Research Center was hosted by Seth MacFarlane, with a live performance by Pharrell Williams, and expected presenters Russell Crowe, Hilary Swank, Lily Collins, and Kumail Nanjiani & Martin Starr of HBO’s Silicon Valley.

Winners of the 2015 Breakthrough Prize, at a ceremony in California.

Agol contributed low dimensional topology and geometric group theory, including work on the solutions of the tameness, virtual Haken and virtual fibering conjectures. The awards were instituted in 2012 by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and carry a hefty $3 million tag. Increasingly, he added, breakthroughs are made through vast consortiums rather than a handful of scientists working in relative isolation, raising the chances of such shared prizes in future.

Boyden and Deisseroth were lauded for their efforts in optogenetics – showing how neurons could be controlled with light. John Hardy of the University College of London was awarded the prize for discovering mutations in the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) gene, which is the cause of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The duo was also awarded the European Brain Prize in 2013 for the same work.

“By challenging conventional thinking and expanding knowledge over the long term, scientists can solve the biggest problems of our time”, said Mark Zuckerberg. a founder of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Facebook.

2016 laureate Helen Hobbs arrives at the #breakthoughprize! In the case of this year’s physics prize, the honor translates into more prestige than cash, as 1,370 physicists, along with seven team leaders, would be sharing a single $3 million award.

Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, led by Arthur B. McDonald, Queen’s University, Canada.

Super-Kamiokande Collaboration, led by Takaaki Kajita, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research and Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo; and by Yoichiro Suzuki, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo, Japan.

The Breakthrough Prizes are also accompanied by a suite of awards for early-career work, called the New Horizons Prizes that come with $100,000 apiece. The physics prizes were split between three groups – one for work on topological phases in condensed matter (the same group also won the Raymond and Beverly Sackler global Physics Prize in 2014), one for contributions to theoretical cosmology, and one – Yuji Tachikawa – for work in theoretical physics.

The New Horizons in Mathematics Prize is awarded to promising junior researchers who have already produced important work in mathematics.

The Breakthrough Prize trophy was created by Olafur Eliasson.

The third New Horizons in Mathematics Prize, recognizing Peter Scholze of Bonn University, was declined.

A high school student from North Royalton, Ohio, named Ryan Chester was the youngest recipient and was awarded due to his excellent video entitled “Some Cool Ways of Looking at the Special Theory of Relativity”. Chester will receive $250,000, his teacher $50,000, and his school a $100,000-lab. Winners are chosen by selection committees, comprised of prior Breakthrough Prize laureates.