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, it was launched in July 2012, and is supported by the foundation co-founded 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, and specifically for recent advances.

Worth US$3 million, the prize is the most lucrative physics prize in the world and is more than twice the amount given to the Nobel Prize awardees.

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 US$3 million.

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 US$300,000 and be automatically nominated for the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in the next five years.

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

Year of award Fundamental Physics Prize laureates Institutional affiliation when prize awarded Awarded for2012Nima Arkani-HamedInstitute for Advanced Study, PrincetonOriginal approaches to outstanding problems in particle physicsAlan GuthMassachusetts Institute of Technology, CambridgeInvention of inflationary cosmology, and for contributions to the theory for the generation of cosmological density fluctuations arising from quantum fluctuationsAlexei KitaevCalifornia Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA Currently at KITP and UCSB, Santa BarbaraFor robust quantum memories and fault-tolerant quantum computation using topological quantum phases with anyons and unpaired Majorana modes; topological quantum computing.Maxim KontsevichInstitut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Bures-sur-YvetteNumerous contributions including development of homological mirror symmetry, and the study of wall-crossing phenomena.Andrei LindeStanford University, StanfordFor 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.Juan MaldacenaInstitute for Advanced Study, PrincetonContributions to gauge/gravity duality, relating gravitational physics in a spacetime and quantum field theory on the boundary of the spacetimeNathan SeibergInstitute for Advanced Study, PrincetonContributions to our understanding of quantum field theory and string theory.Ashoke SenHarish-Chandra Research Institute, AllahabadOpening the path to the realization that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory.Edward WittenInstitute for Advanced Study, PrincetonFor 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.2013 (special)Stephen HawkingFor his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes, and his deep contributions to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe.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 boson by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.2013Alexander PolyakovPrinceton University, PrincetonFor 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.2014Michael GreenCalifornia Institute of TechnologyFor opening new perspectives on quantum gravity and the unification of forces.John Henry SchwarzUniversity of Cambridge2015Saul Perlmutter and members of the Supernova Cosmology Project; Brian P. Schmidt, Adam Riess and members of the High-Z Supernova Team.University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Australian National University;Johns Hopkins University and Space Telescope Science InstituteFor the most unexpected discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing as had been long assumed.2016Yifang Wang; Kam-Biu Luk and the Daya Bay TeamChinese Academy of Sciences, University of California, BerkeleyFor the fundamental discovery and exploration of neutrino oscillations, revealing a new frontier beyond, and possibly far beyond, the standard model of particle physics.Atsuto Suzuki and the KamLAND TeamIwate Prefectural University, JapanKōichirō Nishikawa and the K2K / T2K TeamHigh Energy Accelerator Research Organization, JapanArthur B. McDonald and the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory TeamQueen's University, CanadaTakaaki Kajita; Yōichirō Suzuki and the Super-Kamiokande TeamKavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, University of Tokyo, Japan2016 (special)Ronald DreverCalifornia Institute of TechnologyFor the observation of gravitational waves, opening new horizons in astronomy and physics.Kip ThorneRainer WeissMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyLIGO contributors ( authors of the paper Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger, Physical Review Letters, 11 February 2016) and other LIGO contributorsLIGO2017Joseph PolchinskiUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraFor transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.Andrew StromingerHarvard UniversityCumrun Vafa2018Charles L. BennettJohns Hopkins UniversityFor 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.Gary HinshawUniversity of British ColumbiaNorman JarosikPrinceton UniversityLyman Page Jr.David N. Spergel 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, Chris Hirata, Kendrick Smith, Greg Tucker, Licia Verde, Janet Weiland, Ed Wollack, E. Wollack, Ned Wright)2018 (special)Jocelyn Bell BurnellUniversity of Oxford and University of DundeeFor fundamental contributions to the discovery of pulsars, and a lifetime of inspiring leadership in the scientific community.2019Charles KaneUniversity of PennsylvaniaFor 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.Laureates 2019Eugene Mele2019 (special)Sergio FerraraCERN, UCLAFor the invention of supergravity, in which quantum variables are part of the description of the geometry of spacetime.Daniel Z. FreedmanMassachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford UniversityPeter van NieuwenhuizenStony Brook University2020The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration 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 For the first image of a supermassive black hole, taken by means of an Earth-sized alliance of telescopes.Laureates 2020 2021 Eric AdelbergerUniversity of Washington For precision fundamental measurements that test our understanding of gravity, probe the nature of dark energy, and establish limits on couplings to dark matter.Breakthrough Prize In Fundamental Physics 2021Jens H. Gundlach Blayne Heckel2021 (special)Steven WeinbergUniversity of Texas at AustinFor his continuous leadership in fundamental physics, with broad impact across particle physics, gravity and cosmology, and for communicating science to a wider audience.Special Breakthrough Prize In Fundamental Physics 20212022Hidetoshi KatoriUniversity of Tokyo and RIKENFor outstanding contributions to the invention and development of the optical lattice clock, which enables precision tests of the fundamental laws of nature.Breakthrough Prize In Fundamental Physics 2022Jun YeNational Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado2023Charles H. BennettIBM Thomas J. Watson Research CenterFor foundational work in the field of quantum information.Gilles BrassardUniversité de MontréalDavid DeutschOxford UniversityPeter W. ShorMassachusetts Institute of Technology2024John CardyAll Souls College, University of OxfordFor profound contributions to statistical physics and quantum field theory, with diverse and far-reaching applications in different branches of physics and mathematics.Alexander ZamolodchikovStony Brook University2025ATLAS collaborationCERNFor 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.CMS collaborationALICE collaborationLHCb collaboration2025 (special)Gerard 't HooftUtrecht UniversityFor fundamental insights into gauge theory and the standard model.2026Muon g-2 collaborationComposed of:

CERN Brookhaven National Laboratory FermilabFor multi-decade, groundbreaking contributions to the measurement of the muon's anomalous magnetic moment, pushing the boundaries of experimental precision and igniting a new era in the quest for physics beyond the Standard Model.2026 (special)David GrossUniversity of California, Santa Barbara Kavli Institute for Theoretical PhysicsFor a lifetime of groundbreaking contributions to theoretical physics, from the strong force to string theory, and for tireless advocacy for basic science worldwide

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