Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics: Winners by Year

Award years

• 2026 (special)

  • David J. Gross

    For a lifetime of groundbreaking contributions to theoretical physics, from the strong force to string theory, and for tireless advocacy for basic science worldwide

• 2026

  • Muon g−2 collaboration CERN, Muon g−2 collaboration Brookhaven, Muon g−2 collaboration Fermilab

    For 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.

• 2025 (special)

  • Gerardus 't Hooft

    For fundamental insights into gauge theory and the standard model.

• 2025

  • ATLAS collaboration, CMS collaboration, ALICE collaboration, LHCb collaboration

    For 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.

• 2024

  • Alexander Zamolodchikov, John Cardy

    For profound contributions to statistical physics and quantum field theory, with diverse and far-reaching applications in different branches of physics and mathematics.

• 2023

  • Charles H. Bennett, David Deutsch, Gilles Brassard, Peter W. Shor

    For foundational work in the field of quantum information.

• 2022

  • Hidetoshi Katori, Jun Ye

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

• 2021 (special)

  • Steven Weinberg

    For his continuous leadership in fundamental physics, with broad impact across particle physics, gravity and cosmology, and for communicating science to a wider audience.

• 2021

  • Eric Adelberger, Jens H. Gundlach, Blayne Heckel

    For precision fundamental measurements that test our understanding of gravity, probe the nature of dark energy, and establish limits on couplings to dark matter.

• 2020

  • The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

    For the first image of a supermassive black hole, taken by means of an Earth-sized alliance of telescopes.

• 2019 (special)

  • Daniel Z. Freedman, Peter van Nieuwenhuizen, Sergio Ferrara

    For the invention of supergravity, in which quantum variables are part of the description of the geometry of spacetime.

• 2019

  • Charles Kane, Eugene Mele

    For 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.

• 2018 (special)

  • Jocelyn Bell Burnell

    For fundamental contributions to the discovery of pulsars, and a lifetime of inspiring leadership in the scientific community.

• 2018

  • Charles L. Bennett, Gary Hinshaw, Norman Jarosik, Lyman Page, David N. Spergel

    For 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.

• 2017

  • Andrew Strominger, Joseph Polchinski, Cumrun Vafa

    For transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.

• 2016 (special)

  • Contributors who are authors of the paper Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger and contributors who also made important contributions to the success of LIGO., Ronald Drever, Kip S. Thorne, Rainer Weiss

    For the observation of gravitational waves, opening new horizons in astronomy and physics.

• 2016

  • Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, Arthur B. McDonald, Atsuto Suzuki, Kōichirō Nishikawa, Takaaki Kajita, Yōichirō Suzuki

    For the fundamental discovery and exploration of neutrino oscillations, revealing a new frontier beyond, and possibly far beyond, the standard model of particle physics.

• 2015

  • Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt, Adam G. Riess

    For the most unexpected discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing as had been long assumed.

• 2014

  • Michael Green, John Henry Schwarz

    For opening new perspectives on quantum gravity and the unification of forces.

• 2013 (special)

  • Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti, Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Singh Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joe Incandela, Lyn Evans

    For their leadership role in the scientific endeavour that led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.

  • Stephen Hawking

    For his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes, and his deep contributions to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe.

• 2013

  • Alexander Polyakov

    For 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.

• 2012

  • Alan Guth

    Invention of inflationary cosmology, and for contributions to the theory for the generation of cosmological density fluctuations arising from quantum fluctuations

  • Alexei Kitaev

    For robust quantum memories and fault-tolerant quantum computation using topological quantum phases with anyons and unpaired Majorana modes; topological quantum computing.

  • Andrei Linde

    For 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.

  • Ashoke Sen

    Opening the path to the realization that all string theories are different limits of the same underlying theory.

  • Edward Witten

    For 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.

  • Juan Maldacena

    Contributions to gauge/gravity duality, relating gravitational physics in a spacetime and quantum field theory on the boundary of the spacetime

  • Maxim Kontsevich

    Numerous contributions including development of homological mirror symmetry, and the study of wall-crossing phenomena.

  • Nathan Seiberg

    Contributions to our understanding of quantum field theory and string theory.

  • Nima Arkani-Hamed

    Original approaches to outstanding problems in particle physics