Breakthrough Prize Winners 2022 List

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation and its founding sponsors – Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki – announced the 2023 Breakthrough Prize laureates, recognized for their game-changing discoveries in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics, along with early-career scientists who have made significant contributions to their fields.

2023 Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences

• Clifford P. Brangwynne, Princeton University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Marine Biological Laboratory
  Anthony A. Hyman, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics

  For discovering a fundamental mechanism of cellular organization mediated by phase separation of proteins and RNA into membraneless liquid droplets.

• Demis Hassabis, DeepMind
  John Jumper, DeepMind

  For developing a deep learning AI method that rapidly and accurately predicts the three-dimensional structure of proteins from their amino acid sequence.

• Emmanuel Mignot, Stanford University School of Medicine
  Masashi Yanagisawa, University of Tsukuba

  For discovering that narcolepsy is caused by the loss of a small population of brain cells that make a wake-promoting substance, paving the way for the development of new treatments for sleep disorders.

2023 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

• Charles H. Bennett, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
  Gilles Brassard, Université de Montréal
  David Deutsch, Oxford University
  Peter W. Shor, MIT

  For foundational work in the field of quantum information.

2023 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics

• Daniel A. Spielman, Yale University

  For breakthrough contributions to theoretical computer science and mathematics, including to spectral graph theory, the Kadison-Singer problem, numerical linear algebra, optimization, and coding theory.

2023 New Horizons in Physics Prize

• David Simmons-Duffin, Caltech

  For the development of analytical and numerical techniques to study conformal field theories, including the ones describing the liquid vapor critical point and the superfluid phase transition.

• Anna Grassellino, Fermilab

  For the discovery of major performance enhancements to niobium superconducting radio-frequency cavities, with applications ranging from accelerator physics to quantum devices.

• Hannes Bernien , University of Chicago
  Manuel Endres, Caltech
  Adam M. Kaufman, JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado
  Kang-Kuen Ni, Harvard University
  Hannes Pichler, University of Innsbruck and Austrian Academy of Sciences
  Jeff Thompson, Princeton University

  For the development of optical tweezer arrays to realize control of individual atoms for applications in quantum information science, metrology, and molecular physics.

2023 New Horizons in Mathematics Prize

• Ana Caraiani, Imperial College London and University of Bonn

  For diverse transformative contributions to the Langlands program, and in particular for work with Peter Scholze on the Hodge-Tate period map for Shimura varieties and its applications.

• Ronen Eldan, Weizmann Institute of Science and Microsoft Research

  For the creation of the stochastic localization method, that has led to significant progress in several open problems in high-dimensional geometry and probability, including Jean Bourgain’s slicing problem and the KLS conjecture.

• James Maynard, Oxford University and Institute for Advanced Study

  For multiple contributions to analytic number theory, and in particular to the distribution of prime numbers.

2023 Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize

• Maggie Miller, Stanford University and Clay Mathematics Institute (PhD Princeton University 2020)

  For work on fibered ribbon knots and surfaces in 4-dimensional manifolds.

• Jinyoung Park, Stanford University (PhD Rutgers University 2020)

  For contributions to the resolution of several major conjectures on thresholds and selector processes.

• Vera Traub, University of Bonn (PhD University of Bonn 2020)

  For advances in approximation results in classical combinatorial optimization problems, including the traveling salesman problem and network design.

The Breakthrough Prize

The Breakthrough Prizes are a set of international awards bestowed in three categories by the Breakthrough Prize Board in recognition of scientific advances. The awards were first bestowed upon winners in 2012. The awards are part of several “Breakthrough” initiatives founded and funded by Yuri Milner and his wife Julia Milner, along with Breakthrough Initiatives and Breakthrough Junior Challenge.

• Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics
• Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
• Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. The Prizes have been sponsored by the personal foundations established by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Ma Huateng, Jack Ma, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. Committees of previous laureates choose the winners from candidates nominated in a process that is online and open to the public.

Laureates receive $3 million each in prize money. They attend a televised award ceremony designed to celebrate their achievements and inspire the next generation of scientists. As part of the ceremony schedule, they also engage in a program of lectures and discussions. Those that go on to make fresh discoveries remain eligible for future Breakthrough Prizes.