Breakthrough Prize announces recipients of $15.75M awards in life sciences, physics, math

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation and its founding sponsors today announced the winners of the 10^th annual Breakthrough Prizes, awarding a total of $15.75 million to an esteemed group of laureates and early-career scientists.

The Breakthrough Prize recognizes ground-breaking discoveries in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics.  The world’s largest science prize, each of the five main Breakthrough Prizes is $3 million.

Beyond the main prizes, six New Horizons Prizes, each of $100,000, were distributed between 13 early-career scientists and mathematicians who have already made a substantial impact on their fields. In addition, three Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes were awarded to early-career women mathematicians.

Including the New Horizons and New Frontiers prizes for early-career achievements, a total of $15.75 million is conferred this year, bringing the total amount awarded to pioneering scientists and mathematicians throughout the decade of the Prize’s existence to $276.5 million.

Breakthrough prize winners

2022 Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences

 Jeffery W. Kelly

Scripps Research Institute 

For elucidating the molecular basis of neurodegenerative and cardiac transthyretin diseases, and for developing tafamidis, a drug that slows their progression.

 Katalin Karikó

BioNTech and University of Pennsylvania

 Drew Weissman

University of Pennsylvania 

For engineering modified RNA technology which enabled rapid development of effective COVID-19 vaccines.

 Shankar Balasubramanian

University of Cambridge

 David Klenerman

University of Cambridge

Pascal Mayer

Alphanosos 

For the development of a robust and affordable method to determine DNA sequences on a massive scale, which has transformed the practice of science and medicine.

2022 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

 Hidetoshi Katori

University of Tokyo and RIKEN

Jun Ye

National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado 

For outstanding contributions to the invention and development of the optical lattice clock, which enables precision tests of the fundamental laws of nature.

2022 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics

Takuro Mochizuki

Kyoto University 

For monumental work leading to a breakthrough in our understanding of the theory of bundles with flat connections over algebraic varieties, including the case of irregular singularities.

Information on the Breakthrough Prize is available at breakthroughprize.org.