Breakthrough Prizes in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics Grant

Breakthrough Prizes in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Breakthrough Prize
Amount: US $3,000,000
Last Updated: April 02, 2026

Summary

The Breakthrough Prizes in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences, and Mathematics celebrate remarkable achievements in scientific fields that pose profound questions about existence and the universe. Sponsored by prominent figures like Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg, these prizes recognize the accomplishments of individuals who push the boundaries of knowledge and understanding. With no age limits and an open nomination process, the prizes aim to foster innovation and inspire future generations of scientists and thinkers.

Overview

About Knowledge is humanity’s greatest asset. It defines our nature, and it will shape our future. The body of knowledge is assembled over centuries. Yet a single mind can extend it immensely. Einstein reimagined space and time. Darwin distilled the chaos of life to a single idea. Turing figured out what it means to think. Great scientists enrich us all. They enable technologies that ease our lives, but they also show us what’s beyond our horizons. Science is revealing worlds far beyond the everyday scale, from the subatomic and cellular to the stellar and galactic. Increasingly we can think at these levels and trace the connections between them. And as we do, we are making progress on the truly big questions. Questions like: Why is there something rather than nothing?What is the Universe made of?How did life begin?How can matter think?How much is knowable? The disciplines that ask the biggest questions and find the deepest explanations are the fundamental sciences. The Breakthrough Prizes honor important, primarily recent, achievements in the categories of Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics. The prizes are sponsored by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Pony Ma, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. Committees of previous laureates choose the winners from candidates nominated in a process that’s online and open to the public. Breakthrough Prize Life Sciences In the fifty years between the discovery of the double helix and the decoding of the human genome, we have undergone a revolution in our understanding of life. Since then the rate of discoveries has accelerated, and this rapid progress looks set to continue. Armed with new knowledge and new technologies, fields like genetics, molecular biology, oncology and neurology are now making real strides. Not just in describing how cells and organs function but in fighting some of the most deadly diseases. The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences honors transformative advances toward understanding living systems and extending human life. Fundamental Physics Insights from fundamental physics have overturned our assumptions about the world around us. Last century, general relativity reshaped our picture of space and time, and quantum mechanics replaced the march of cause and effect with a dance of probabilities. Just in the last few decades, we have detected the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, and discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating. This century is likely to produce more surprises. From the subatomic to the cosmic scale, physicists are opening windows into the deep structure of reality. Mathematics “All is number,” taught Pythagoras. Though modern mathematics encompasses far more than numbers alone, the principle remains true. Mathematics is the universal language of nature. Mathematics is also fundamental to the growth of knowledge, as it is the scaffolding that supports all the sciences. Its relationship to physics is particularly intimate. From imaginary numbers to Hilbert spaces, what once seemed pure abstractions have turned out to underlie real physical processes. In addition, all fields in the life sciences today utilize the power of statistical and computational approaches to research.

Eligibility

You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website. The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics recognizes a single person’s contribution to the field of mathematics, with special attention to recent developments (in the last 10 years, although earlier contributions may also be considered).In exceptional circumstances, when a prize is awarded for joint work, the committee may split the prize.Candidate citations (up to 10) from a specified academic publishing database are required.There are no age restrictions.A person can receive a prize more than once.One prize per year will be awarded.Anyone can nominate a candidate online during the open nominations period.A valid nomination will have basic biographical information on the nominee and nominator and at least one third-party letter of recommendation.

Ineligibility

Self-nominations are not allowed.