Breakthrough Prize awards $25 million to top scientists

The glitterati took over the geeks when Silicon Valley and Hollywood came together to honor the work of those individuals who have made a significant contribution in the field of science, physics and math.

A combined total of $25 million was awarded at the Breakthrough Prizes, one of the richest science awards on Earth. Each of the Breakthrough Prizes is worth $3 million, the largest individual monetary prize in science. It receives funding from Russian tech entrepreneur and investor Yuri Milner and his wife, Julia Milner; Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan; Google's Sergey Brin and his former wife, Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe; and Alibaba's Jack Ma and his wife, Cathy Zhang.

This year, a total of seven of these prizes were awarded to nine individuals, along with a $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which was split between three founders and more than a thousand members of the LIGO team. In addition, three $100,000 New Horizons in physics prizes were awarded to six early-career physicists, and a further three $100,000 New Horizons in mathematics prizes were awarded to four young mathematicians. And this year, there were two winners of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, each receiving up to $400,000 in educational prizes for them, their teacher and their school.

“Science is universal,” said Yuri Milner. “Tonight it brought together some of the world’s greatest actors, sportsmen, musicians, academics, entrepreneurs, astronauts and, last but not least, scientists, to celebrate what the human mind can achieve. And it brought in a live audience from across the planet.”