News

.Back to listing

Mon, Nov 09

Breakthrough prizes give top scientists the rock star treatment

The richest awards in science are being handed out Sunday night when the Breakthrough Prize organization presents a total of $21.9 million to physicists, mathematicians, life scientists and one talented high school student. The awards will take the form of seven $3 million awards, one of which will be split among some 1,300 physicists; $500,000 split among eight early-career researchers; and $400,000 to a high school student for creating a video communicating a scientific concept.

The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin of Google; Anne Wojcicki of 23andme; Jack Ma of Alibaba and his wife, Cathy Zhang; Yuri Milner, an Internet entrepreneur, and his wife, Julia Milner; and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

Read more from The New York Times.