Breakthrough Prize
Breakthrough Prize: every winner
Every recorded recipient in one list, oldest first. Founded in 2012 by a group of technology entrepreneurs to reward achievements in fundamental physics, life sciences, and mathematics. Awarded annually at a televised ceremony in the Los Angeles area of California. Carries a prize of $3 million per award, the largest of any prize on this site.
153 recipients, 2012-2026
| Year | Category | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Fundamental Physics | Alan Guth |
| 2012 | Fundamental Physics | Alexei Kitaev |
| 2012 | Fundamental Physics | Andrei Linde |
| 2012 | Fundamental Physics | Ashoke Sen |
| 2012 | Fundamental Physics | Edward Witten |
| 2012 | Fundamental Physics | Juan Maldacena |
| 2012 | Fundamental Physics | Maxim Kontsevich |
| 2012 | Fundamental Physics | Nathan Seiberg |
| 2012 | Fundamental Physics | Nima Arkani-Hamed |
| 2013 | Fundamental Physics | Alexander Polyakov |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Bert Vogelstein |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Charles Sawyers |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Cornelia Bargmann |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | David Botstein |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Eric S. Lander |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Hans Clevers |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Lewis C. Cantley |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Napoleone Ferrara |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Robert A. Weinberg |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Shinya Yamanaka |
| 2013 | Life Sciences | Titia de Lange |
| 2013 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Peter Jenni |
| 2013 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Stephen Hawking |
| 2013 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Fabiola Gianotti |
| 2013 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Michel Della Negra |
| 2013 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Tejinder Singh Virdee |
| 2013 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Guido Tonelli |
| 2013 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Joe Incandela |
| 2013 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Lyn Evans |
| 2014 | Fundamental Physics | Michael Green |
| 2014 | Life Sciences | Alexander Varshavsky |
| 2014 | Life Sciences | James P. Allison |
| 2014 | Life Sciences | Mahlon DeLong |
| 2014 | Life Sciences | Michael N. Hall |
| 2014 | Life Sciences | Richard P. Lifton |
| 2014 | Life Sciences | Robert S. Langer |
| 2014 | Fundamental Physics | John Henry Schwarz |
| 2015 | Fundamental Physics | Saul Perlmutter |
| 2015 | Life Sciences | Alim-Louis Benabid |
| 2015 | Life Sciences | C. David Allis |
| 2015 | Life Sciences | Jennifer A. Doudna |
| 2015 | Life Sciences | Victor Ambros |
| 2015 | Mathematics | Jacob Lurie |
| 2015 | Mathematics | Maxim Kontsevich |
| 2015 | Mathematics | Richard Taylor |
| 2015 | Mathematics | Simon Donaldson |
| 2015 | Mathematics | Terence Tao |
| 2015 | Fundamental Physics | Brian P. Schmidt |
| 2015 | Fundamental Physics | Adam G. Riess |
| 2016 | Fundamental Physics | Sudbury Neutrino Observatory |
| 2016 | Fundamental Physics | Arthur B. McDonald |
| 2016 | Fundamental Physics | Atsuto Suzuki |
| 2016 | Fundamental Physics | Kōichirō Nishikawa |
| 2016 | Fundamental Physics | Takaaki Kajita |
| 2016 | Life Sciences | Edward S. Boyden |
| 2016 | Life Sciences | Helen Hobbs |
| 2016 | Life Sciences | John Hardy |
| 2016 | Life Sciences | Svante Pääbo |
| 2016 | Mathematics | Ian Agol |
| 2016 | Fundamental Physics | Yōichirō Suzuki |
| 2016 (special) | Fundamental Physics | 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. |
| 2016 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Ronald Drever |
| 2016 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Kip S. Thorne |
| 2016 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Rainer Weiss |
| 2017 | Fundamental Physics | Andrew Strominger |
| 2017 | Fundamental Physics | Joseph Polchinski |
| 2017 | Life Sciences | Harry F. Noller |
| 2017 | Life Sciences | Huda Zoghbi |
| 2017 | Life Sciences | Roel Nusse |
| 2017 | Life Sciences | Stephen Elledge |
| 2017 | Life Sciences | Yoshinori Ohsumi |
| 2017 | Mathematics | Jean Bourgain |
| 2017 | Fundamental Physics | Cumrun Vafa |
| 2018 | Fundamental Physics | Charles L. Bennett |
| 2018 | Fundamental Physics | Gary Hinshaw |
| 2018 | Fundamental Physics | Norman Jarosik |
| 2018 | Life Sciences | Don W. Cleveland |
| 2018 | Life Sciences | Joanne Chory |
| 2018 | Life Sciences | Kim Nasmyth |
| 2018 | Life Sciences | Peter Walter |
| 2018 | Mathematics | Christopher Hacon |
| 2018 | Mathematics | James McKernan |
| 2018 | Fundamental Physics | Lyman Page |
| 2018 | Fundamental Physics | David N. Spergel |
| 2018 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Jocelyn Bell Burnell |
| 2019 | Fundamental Physics | Charles Kane |
| 2019 | Life Sciences | Angelika Amon |
| 2019 | Life Sciences | C. Frank Bennett |
| 2019 | Life Sciences | Xiaowei Zhuang |
| 2019 | Life Sciences | Zhijian Chen |
| 2019 | Mathematics | Vincent Lafforgue |
| 2019 | Fundamental Physics | Eugene Mele |
| 2019 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Daniel Z. Freedman |
| 2019 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Peter van Nieuwenhuizen |
| 2019 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Sergio Ferrara |
| 2020 | Fundamental Physics | The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration |
| 2020 | Life Sciences | Arthur L. Horwich |
| 2020 | Life Sciences | David Julius |
| 2020 | Life Sciences | Franz-Ulrich Hartl |
| 2020 | Life Sciences | Jeffrey M. Friedman |
| 2020 | Life Sciences | Virginia Man-Yee Lee |
| 2020 | Mathematics | Alex Eskin |
| 2020 | Mathematics | Maryam Mirzakhani |
| 2021 | Fundamental Physics | Eric Adelberger |
| 2021 | Life Sciences | Catherine Dulac |
| 2021 | Life Sciences | David Baker |
| 2021 | Life Sciences | Richard J. Youle |
| 2021 | Life Sciences | Yuk Ming Dennis Lo |
| 2021 | Mathematics | Martin Hairer |
| 2021 | Fundamental Physics | Jens H. Gundlach |
| 2021 | Fundamental Physics | Blayne Heckel |
| 2021 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Steven Weinberg |
| 2022 | Fundamental Physics | Hidetoshi Katori |
| 2022 | Fundamental Physics | Jun Ye |
| 2022 | Life Sciences | Jeffery W. Kelly |
| 2022 | Life Sciences | Katalin Karikó |
| 2022 | Life Sciences | Shankar Balasubramanian |
| 2022 | Mathematics | Takurō Mochizuki |
| 2023 | Fundamental Physics | Charles H. Bennett |
| 2023 | Fundamental Physics | David Deutsch |
| 2023 | Fundamental Physics | Gilles Brassard |
| 2023 | Fundamental Physics | Peter W. Shor |
| 2023 | Life Sciences | Clifford P. Brangwynne |
| 2023 | Life Sciences | Demis Hassabis |
| 2023 | Life Sciences | Emmanuel Mignot |
| 2023 | Mathematics | Daniel Spielman |
| 2024 | Fundamental Physics | Alexander Zamolodchikov |
| 2024 | Fundamental Physics | John Cardy |
| 2024 | Life Sciences | Carl H. June |
| 2024 | Life Sciences | Sabine Hadida |
| 2024 | Life Sciences | Thomas Gasser |
| 2024 | Mathematics | Simon Brendle |
| 2025 | Fundamental Physics | ATLAS collaboration |
| 2025 | Life Sciences | Daniel J. Drucker |
| 2025 | Life Sciences | David R. Liu |
| 2025 | Life Sciences | Stephen L. Hauser |
| 2025 | Mathematics | Dennis Gaitsgory |
| 2025 | Fundamental Physics | CMS collaboration |
| 2025 | Fundamental Physics | ALICE collaboration |
| 2025 | Fundamental Physics | LHCb collaboration |
| 2025 (special) | Fundamental Physics | Gerardus 't Hooft |
| 2026 | Fundamental Physics | Muon g−2 collaboration CERN |
| 2026 | Life Sciences | Albert Maguire |
| 2026 | Life Sciences | Bryan Traynor |
| 2026 | Life Sciences | Jean Bennett |
| 2026 | Life Sciences | Katherine A. High |
| 2026 | Life Sciences | Rosa Rademakers |
| 2026 | Life Sciences | Stuart H. Orkin |
| 2026 | Life Sciences | Swee Lay Thein |
| 2026 | Mathematics | Frank Merle |
| 2026 | Fundamental Physics | Muon g−2 collaboration Brookhaven |
| 2026 | Fundamental Physics | Muon g−2 collaboration Fermilab |
| 2026 (special) | Fundamental Physics | David J. Gross |