Breakthrough Prize
Breakthrough Prize 2017: Winners
Recipients
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Fundamental Physics
Andrew Strominger, Joseph Polchinski, Cumrun Vafa
For transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.
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Life Sciences
Harry F. Noller
for discovering the centrality of RNA in forming the active centers of the ribosome, the fundamental machinery of protein synthesis in all cells, thereby connecting modern biology to the origin of life and also explaining how many natural antibiotics disrupt protein synthesis.
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Life Sciences
Huda Zoghbi
for discoveries of the genetic causes and biochemical mechanisms of spinocerebellar ataxia and Rett syndrome, findings that have provided insight into the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and neurological diseases.
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Life Sciences
Roel Nusse
for pioneering research on the Wnt pathway, one of the crucial intercellular signaling systems in development, cancer and stem cell biology.
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Life Sciences
Stephen Elledge
for elucidating how eukaryotic cells sense and respond to damage in their DNA and providing insights into the development and treatment of cancer.
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Life Sciences
Yoshinori Ohsumi
for elucidating autophagy, the recycling system that cells use to generate nutrients from their own inessential or damaged components.
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Mathematics
Jean Bourgain
for multiple transformative contributions to analysis, combinatorics, partial differential equations, high-dimensional geometry and number theory.