World’s Largest Science Prizes to be Awarded in December 2017 at Televised Ceremony in Silicon Valley
 
March 1, 2017 (San Francisco) – The public nomination period for the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics is now open. Prizes will be awarded in early December 2017 during a live, globally televised gala awards ceremony in Silicon Valley.
 
Nominations can be submitted online through May 31, 2017. While self-nominations are prohibited, anyone may make a nomination for another person. The nomination form and rules are available at www.breakthroughprize.org.
 
For the sixth year, the Breakthrough Prize, recognized as the world’s largest science prize, will honor top scientists, handing out up to five prizes in Life Sciences, one in Fundamental Physics and one in Mathematics. Each prize comes with a $3 million award.
 
In addition, up to six New Horizons Prizes, each for $100,000, will be presented to promising early-career researchers in the fields of Fundamental Physics and Mathematics.
 
The Breakthrough Prize hosts a gala awards ceremony to celebrate the laureates’ achievements and to foster broad popular support for scientific endeavors and inspire the next generation of scientists. As part of the schedule, the prizewinners also engage in a program of lectures and discussions at a daylong symposium the day after the ceremony.
 
The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, and Yuri and Julia Milner. Selection Committees are composed of previous Breakthrough Prize laureates, who choose the winners from the list of candidates obtained during the nomination period.
 
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
 
One 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics ($3 million) will recognize an individual(s) who has made profound contributions to human knowledge. It is open to all physicists – theoretical, mathematical and experimental – working on the deepest mysteries of the Universe. The prize can be shared among any number of scientists. Nominations are also being taken for the New Horizons in Physics Prize, which will include up to three $100,000 awards for junior researchers who have already produced important work in their fields.
 
The Selection Committee for the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics includes: Nima Arkani-Hamed, Lyn Evans, Michael B. Green, Alan Guth, Stephen Hawking, Joseph Incandela, Takaaki Kajita, Alexei Kitaev, Maxim Kontsevich, Andrei Linde, Arthur McDonald, Juan Maldacena, Saul Perlmutter, Joseph Polchinski, Alexander Polyakov, Adam Riess, John H. Schwarz, Nathan Seiberg, Ashoke Sen, Andrew Strominger, Kip S. Thorne, Cumrun Vafa, Yifang Wang, Rainer Weiss and Edward Witten.
 
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
 
Up to five 2018 Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences ($3 million each) will be awarded to individuals who have made transformative advances in understanding living systems and extending human life.
 
The Selection Committee for the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences includes: C. David Allis, James P. Allison, Victor Ambros, Cornelia I. Bargmann, Alim Louis Benabid, David Botstein, Edward S. Boyden, Lewis C. Cantley, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Hans Clevers, Karl Deisseroth, Titia de Lange, Mahlon R. DeLong, Jennifer A. Doudna, Stephen J. Elledge, Napoleone Ferrara, Michael N. Hall, John Hardy, Helen Hobbs, Eric S. Lander, Robert Langer, Richard P. Lifton, Harry F. Noller, Roeland Nusse, Yoshinori Ohsumi, Svante Pääbo, Gary Ruvkun, Charles L. Sawyers, Alexander Varshavsky, Bert Vogelstein, Robert A. Weinberg, Shinya Yamanaka and Huda Yahya Zoghbi.
 
Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics
 
One 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics ($3 million) will be awarded to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of mathematics. In addition, up to three $100,000 New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes will be presented to early career mathematicians who have already produced important work in their fields.
 
The Selection Committee for the 2018 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics includes: Ian Agol, Jean Bourgain, Simon Donaldson, Maxim Kontsevich, Jacob Lurie, Terence Tao and Richard Taylor.
 
Information on the Breakthrough Prizes is available at www.breakthroughprize.org.
 
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