Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics is one of the Breakthrough Prizes, awarded by the Breakthrough Prize Board. Initially named Fundamental Physics Prize,^[1] it was founded in July 2012 by Russia-born Israeli entrepreneur, venture capitalist and physicist Yuri Milner. The prize is awarded to physicists from theoretical, mathematical, or experimental physics that have made transformative contributions to fundamental physics,^[2] and specifically for recent advances.^[3]

Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
Awarded for	Accomplishments in fundamental physics broadly defined
Presented by	Breakthrough Prize Board
Reward(s)	USD$3 million
First award	2012
Website	Official Website

Worth USD$3 million, the prize is the most lucrative physics prize in the world^[4][5] and is more than twice the amount given to the Nobel Prize awardees.^[6]

Unlike the annual Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, the Special Breakthrough Prize may be awarded at any time for outstanding achievements, while the prize money is still USD$3 million.^[7]

Physics Frontiers Prize has only been awarded for two years. Laureates are automatically nominated for next year's Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. If they are not awarded the prize the next year, they will each receive USD$300,000 and be automatically nominated for the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in the next five years.^[8]

Laureates

This is a listing of the laureates by year (including Special Prize winners):

Year of award	Fundamental Physics Prize laureates	Awarded for	Alma mater	Institutional affiliation when prize awarded
2012	Nima Arkani-Hamed	Original approaches to outstanding problems in particle physics	University of Toronto, University of California, Berkeley	Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
	Alan Guth	Invention of inflationary cosmology, and for contributions to the theory for the generation of cosmological density fluctuations arising from quantum fluctuations	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
	Alexei Kitaev	For robust quantum memories and fault-tolerant quantum computation using topological quantum phases with anyons and unpaired Majorana modes; topological quantum computing.	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics	California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA Currently at KITP and UCSB, Santa Barbara
	Maxim Kontsevich	Numerous contributions including development of homological mirror symmetry, and the study of wall-crossing phenomena.	University of Bonn Moscow State University	Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Bures-sur-Yvette
	Andrei Linde[9]	For development of inflationary cosmology, including the theory of new inflation, eternal chaotic inflation and the theory of inflationary multiverse, and for contributing to the development of vacuum stabilization mechanisms in string theory.	Moscow State University	Stanford University, Stanford
	Juan Maldacena	Contributions to gauge/gravity duality, relating gravitational physics in a spacetime and quantum field theory on the boundary of the spacetime	Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Instituto Balseiro, Princeton University	Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
	Nathan Seiberg	Contributions to our understanding of quantum field theory and string theory.	Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel-Aviv University	Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
	Ashoke Sen	Opening the path to the realization that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory.	Presidency College, Kolkata University of Calcutta IIT Kanpur Stony Brook University	Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad
	Edward Witten	For applications of topology to physics, non-perturbative duality symmetries, models of particle physics derived from string theory, dark matter detection, and the twistor-string approach to particle scattering amplitudes, as well as numerous applications of quantum field theory to mathematics.	Brandeis University (B.A.) University of Wisconsin, Madison Princeton University (PhD)	Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
2013 (special)	Stephen Hawking	For his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes, and his deep contributions to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe.[10]
	Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti (ATLAS), Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Singh Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joe Incandela (CMS) and Lyn Evans (LHC)	For their leadership role in the scientific endeavour that led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.[10]
2013	Alexander Polyakov	For his many discoveries in field theory and string theory including the conformal bootstrap, magnetic monopoles, instantons, confinement/de-confinement, the quantization of strings in non-critical dimensions, gauge/string duality and many others. His ideas have dominated the scene in these fields during the past decades.	Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology	Princeton University, Princeton
2014	Michael Green, John Henry Schwarz	For opening new perspectives on quantum gravity and the unification of forces.	Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley; and Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK	California Institute of Technology and Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
2015	Saul Perlmutter and members of the Supernova Cosmology Project; Brian P. Schmidt, Adam Riess and members of the High-Z Supernova Team.	For the most unexpected discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing as had been long assumed.	Harvard, UC Berkeley (Perlmutter), University of Arizona, Harvard (Schmidt), and MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley (Riess)	University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Australian National University;Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science Institute
2016	Yifang Wang; Kam-Biu Luk and the Daya Bay Team	For the fundamental discovery and exploration of neutrino oscillations, revealing a new frontier beyond, and possibly far beyond, the standard model of particle physics.	Nanjing University (Wang) University of Hong Kong, Rutgers University (Luk)	Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of California, Berkeley
	Atsuto Suzuki and the KamLAND Team		Niigata University, Tohoku University	Iwate Prefectural University, Japan
	Kōichirō Nishikawa and the K2K / T2K Team			High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, Japan
	Arthur B. McDonald and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Team		Dalhousie University, California Institute of Technology	Queen's University, Canada
	Takaaki Kajita; Yōichirō Suzuki and the Super-Kamiokande Team		Saitama University, University of Tokyo (Kajita)	Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo, Japan
2016 (special)	Ronald Drever, Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss	For the observation of gravitational waves, opening new horizons in astronomy and physics.[11]
	Сontributors who are authors of the paper Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger (Physical Review Letters, 11 February 2016) and contributors who also made important contributions to the success of LIGO.
2017	Joseph Polchinski	For transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.[12]	University of California, Berkeley	University of California, Santa Barbara
	Andrew Strominger, Cumrun Vafa		Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Princeton University	Harvard University
2018	Charles L. Bennett	For detailed maps of the early universe that greatly improved our knowledge of the evolution of the cosmos and the fluctuations that seeded the formation of galaxies.[13]		Johns Hopkins University
	Gary Hinshaw			University of British Columbia
	Norman Jarosik, Lyman Page Jr., David N. Spergel and the WMAP Science Team (Chris Barnes, Olivier Doré, Joanna Dunkley, Ben Gold, Michael Greason, Mark Halpern, Robert Hill, Al Kogut, Eiichiro Komatsu, David Larson, Michele Limon, Stephan Meyer, Michael Nolta, Nils Odegard, Hiranya Peiris, Kendrick Smith, Greg Tucker, Licia Verde, Janet Weiland, Ed Wollack, E. Wollack, Ned Wright)[14]			Princeton University
2018 (special)	Jocelyn Bell Burnell	For fundamental contributions to the discovery of pulsars, and a lifetime of inspiring leadership in the scientific community.[15]	University of Glasgow (BSc) University of Cambridge (PhD)	University of Oxford and University of Dundee
2019	Charles Kane, Eugene Mele	For new ideas about topology and symmetry in physics, leading to the prediction of a new class of materials that conduct electricity only on their surface.[16]		University of Pennsylvania
2019 (special)	Sergio Ferrara	For the invention of supergravity, in which quantum variables are part of the description of the geometry of spacetime.[17]		CERN, UCLA
	Daniel Z. Freedman			Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University
	Peter van Nieuwenhuizen			Stony Brook University
2020	The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration	For the first image of a supermassive black hole, taken by means of an Earth-sized alliance of telescopes.[18]		The EHT Collaboration consists of 13 stakeholder institutes: the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics the University of Arizona the University of Chicago the East Asian Observatory Goethe University Frankfurt Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (part of the Center for Astrophysics) Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique (IRAM, itself a collaboration between the French CNRS, the German Max Planck Society, and the Spanish Instituto Geográfico Nacional), Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy MIT Haystack Observatory National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Radboud University
2021	Eric Adelberger, Jens H. Gundlach and Blayne Heckel	For precision fundamental measurements that test our understanding of gravity, probe the nature of dark energy, and establish limits on couplings to dark matter.[19]		University of Washington
2021 (special)	Steven Weinberg	For his continuous leadership in fundamental physics, with broad impact across particle physics, gravity and cosmology, and for communicating science to a wider audience.[20]		University of Texas at Austin
2022	Hidetoshi Katori	For outstanding contributions to the invention and development of the optical lattice clock, which enables precision tests of the fundamental laws of nature.[21]		University of Tokyo and RIKEN
	Jun Ye			National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado
2023	Charles H. Bennett	For foundational work in the field of quantum information.[22]		IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
	Gilles Brassard			Université de Montréal
	David Deutsch			Oxford University
	Peter W. Shor			Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2024	John Cardy	For profound contributions to statistical physics and quantum field theory, with diverse and far-reaching applications in different branches of physics and mathematics.[23]		All Souls College, University of Oxford
	Alexander Zamolodchikov			Stony Brook University
2025	ATLAS collaboration CMS collaboration ALICE collaboration LHCb collaboration	For detailed measurements of Higgs boson properties confirming the symmetry-breaking mechanism of mass generation, the discovery of new strongly interacting particles, the study of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the exploration of nature at the shortest distances and most extreme conditions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.[24]
2025 (special)	Gerard 't Hooft	For fundamental insights into gauge theory and the standard model.[24]	Utrecht University	Utrecht University

New Horizons in Physics Prize

The New Horizons in Physics Prize, awarded to promising junior researchers, carries an award of $100,000.^[25]

Year of award	New Horizons in Physics Prize laureates	Awarded for	Institutional affiliation when prize awarded
2013	Niklas Beisert	Development of powerful exact methods to describe a quantum gauge theory and its associated string theory	ETH Zurich
	Davide Gaiotto	Far-reaching new insights about duality, gauge theory, and geometry, and specially for his work linking theories in different dimensions in most unexpected ways	Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
	Zohar Komargodski[26]	Dynamics of four-dimensional field theories and in particular his proof (with Schwimmer) of the “a-theorem”, which has solved a long-standing problem	Weizmann Institute of Science
2014	Freddy Cachazo	Uncovering numerous structures underlying scattering amplitudes in gauge theories and gravity	Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
	Shiraz Minwalla	Pioneering contributions to the study of string theory and quantum field theory; and in particular his work on the connection between the equations of fluid dynamics and Albert Einstein's equations of general relativity	Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
	Slava Rychkov	Developing new techniques in conformal field theory, reviving the conformal bootstrap program for constraining the spectrum of operators and the structure constants in 3D and 4D CFT's	Pierre-and-Marie-Curie University
2015	Sean Hartnoll	For applying holographic methods to obtain remarkable new insights into strongly interacting quantum matter.	Stanford University
	Philip C. Schuster and Natalia Toro	For pioneering the “simplified models” framework for new physics searches at the Large Hadron Collider, as well as spearheading new experimental searches for dark sectors using high-intensity electron beams.	Perimeter Institute
	Horacio Casini	For fundamental ideas about entropy in quantum field theory and quantum gravity.	CONICET
	Marina Huerta		Universidad Nacional de Cuyo
	Shinsei Ryu		University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
	Tadashi Takayanagi		Kyoto University
2016	B. Andrei Bernevig	For outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics, especially involving the use of topology to understand new states of matter.	Princeton University
	Xiao-Liang Qi		Stanford University
	Raphael Flauger	For outstanding contributions to theoretical cosmology.	The University of Texas at Austin
	Leonardo Senatore		Stanford University
	Liang Fu	For outstanding contributions to condensed matter physics, especially involving the use of topology to understand new states of matter.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Yuji Tachikawa	For penetrating and incisive studies of supersymmetric quantum field theories.	University of Tokyo
2017	Frans Pretorius	For creating the first computer code capable of simulating the inspiral and merger of binary black holes, thereby laying crucial foundations for interpreting the recent observations of gravitational waves; and for opening new directions in numerical relativity.	Princeton University
	Simone Giombi	For imaginative joint work on higher spin gravity and its holographic connection to a new soluble field theory.	Princeton University
	Xi Yin		Harvard University
	Asimina Arvanitaki	For pioneering a wide range of new experimental probes of fundamental physics.	Perimeter Institute
	Peter W. Graham		Stanford University
	Surjeet Rajendran		University of California, Berkeley
2018	Christopher Hirata	For fundamental contributions to understanding the physics of early galaxy formation and to sharpening and applying the most powerful tools of precision cosmology	Ohio State University
	Douglas Stanford	For profound new insights on quantum chaos and its relation to gravity.	Institute for Advanced Study and Stanford University
	Andrea Young	For the co-invention of van der Waals heterostructures, and for the new quantum Hall phases that he discovered with them.	University of California, Santa Barbara
2019	Rana Adhikari	For research on present and future ground-based detectors of gravitational waves.	California Institute of Technology
	Lisa Barsotti and Matthew Evans		Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Daniel Harlow	For fundamental insights about quantum information, quantum field theory, and gravity.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Daniel L. Jafferis		Harvard University
	Aron Wall		Stanford University
	Brian Metzger	For pioneering predictions of the electromagnetic signal from a neutron star merger, and for leadership in the emerging field of multi-messenger astronomy.	Columbia University
2020	Xie Chen	For incisive contributions to the understanding of topological states of matter and the relationships between them.	California Institute of Technology
	Lukasz Fidkowski		University of Washington
	Michael Levin		University of Chicago
	Max A. Metlitski		Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Jo Dunkley	For the development of novel techniques to extract fundamental physics from astronomical data.	Princeton University
	Samaya Nissanke		University of Amsterdam
	Kendrick Smith		Perimeter Institute
	Simon Caron-Huot	For profound contributions to the understanding of quantum field theory.	McGill University
	Pedro Vieira		Perimeter Institute and ICTP-SAIFR
2021	Tracy Slatyer	For major contributions to particle astrophysics, from models of dark matter to the discovery of the “Fermi Bubbles.”	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Rouven Essig	For advances in the detection of sub-GeV dark matter especially in regards to the SENSEI experiment.	Stony Brook University
	Javier Tiffenberg		Fermilab
	Tomer Volansky		Tel Aviv University
	Tien-Tien Yu		University of Oregon
	Ahmed Almheiri	For calculating the quantum information content of a black hole and its radiation.	Institute for Advanced Study
	Netta Engelhardt		Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Henry Maxfield		University of California, Santa Barbara
	Geoff Penington		University of California, Berkeley
2022[21]	Suchitra Sebastian	For high precision electronic and magnetic measurements that have profoundly changed our understanding of high temperature superconductors and unconventional insulators.	University of Cambridge
	Alessandra Corsi	For leadership in laying foundations for electromagnetic observations of sources of gravitational waves, and leadership in extracting rich information from the first observed collision of two neutron stars.	Texas Tech University
	Gregg Hallinan		California Institute of Technology
	Mansi Manoj Kasliwal		California Institute of Technology
	Raffaella Margutti		University of California, Berkeley
	Dominic Else	For pioneering theoretical work formulating novel phases of non-equilibrium quantum matter, including time crystals.	Harvard University
	Vedika Khemani		Stanford University
	Haruki Watanabe		University of Tokyo
	Norman Y. Yao		University of California, Berkeley
2023[22]	David Simmons-Duffin	For the development of analytical and numerical techniques to study conformal field theories, including the ones describing the liquid vapor critical point and the superfluid phase transition.	California Institute of Technology
	Anna Grassellino	For the discovery of major performance enhancements to niobium superconducting radio-frequency cavities, with applications ranging from accelerator physics to quantum devices.	Fermilab
	Hannes Bernien	For the development of optical tweezer arrays to realize control of individual atoms for applications in quantum information science, metrology, and molecular physics.	University of Chicago
	Manuel Endres		California Institute of Technology
	Adam M. Kaufman		JILA
	Kang-Kuen Ni		Harvard University
	Hannes Pichler		University of Innsbruck Austrian Academy of Sciences
	Jeff Thompson		Princeton University
2024[23]	Michael Johnson	For elucidating the sub-structure and universal characteristics of black hole photon rings, and their proposed detection by next-generation interferometric experiments.	Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
	Alexandru Lupsasca		Vanderbilt University
	Mikhail Ivanov	For contributions to our understanding of the large-scale structure of the universe and the development of new tools to extract fundamental physics from galaxy surveys.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Oliver Philcox		Columbia University and Simons Foundation
	Marko Simonović		University of Florence
	Laura M. Pérez	For the prediction, discovery, and modeling of dust traps in young circumstellar disks, solving a long-standing problem in planet formation.	University of Chile
	Paola Pinilla		University College London
	Nienke van der Marel		Leiden Observatory
	Til Birnstiel		Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
2025[24]	Waseem Bakr	For the realization of quantum gas microscopes for atoms and molecules, providing a microscopic view on correlations and transport in strongly interacting quantum systems.	Princeton University
	Jeongwan Haah	For the discovery of Haah's code, in which fractal conservation laws emerge, and other models bringing discrete mathematical structures to physics.	Stanford University
	Sebastiaan Haffert	For demonstrating new extreme adaptive optics techniques that will allow the direct detection of the smallest exoplanets.	Leiden Observatory, Leiden University & Steward Observatory, University of Arizona
	Rebecca Jensen-Clem		University of California, Santa Cruz
	Maaike van Kooten		National Research Council Canada

Trophy

Charles L. Kane holding the Fundamental Physics Prize trophy

The Fundamental Physics Prize trophy, a work of art created by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson,^[27] is a silver sphere with a coiled vortex inside. The form is a toroid, or doughnut shape, resulting from two sets of intertwining three-dimensional spirals. Found in nature, these spirals are seen in animal horns, nautilus shells, whirlpools, and even galaxies and black holes.^[28]

Ceremony

The name of the 2013 prize winner was unveiled at the culmination of a ceremony which took place on the evening of March 20, 2013 at the Geneva International Conference Centre.^[29] The ceremony was hosted by Hollywood actor and science enthusiast Morgan Freeman.^[30] The evening honored the 2013 laureates − 16 outstanding scientists including Stephen Hawking^[31] and CERN scientists who led the decades-long effort to discover the Higgs-like particle at the Large Hadron Collider.^[32] Sarah Brightman and Russian pianist Denis Matsuev performed for the guests of the ceremony.

Criticism

Some have expressed reservations about such new science mega-prizes.^[33]

What's not to like? Quite a lot, according to a handful of scientists... You cannot buy class, as the old saying goes, and these upstart entrepreneurs cannot buy their prizes the prestige of the Nobels. The new awards are an exercise in self-promotion for those behind them, say scientists. They could distort the meritocracy of peer-review-led research. They could cement the status quo of peer-reviewed research. They do not fund peer-reviewed research. They perpetuate the myth of the lone genius.... As much as some scientists may grumble about the new awards, the financial doping that they bring to research and the wisdom of the goals behind them, two things seem clear. First, most researchers would accept such a prize if they were offered one. Second, it is surely a good thing that the money and attention come to science rather than go elsewhere. It is fair to criticize and question the mechanism—that is the culture of research, after all—but it is the prize-givers' money to do with as they please. It is wise to accept such gifts with gratitude and grace.^[34]

See also

• Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
• Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics
• List of physics awards
• List of female Breakthrough Prize laureates