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:
|
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 |