Inside the 2025 Breakthrough Prize: How Yuri Milner’s “Oscars of Science” is Transforming Scientific Recognition | Affiliate Links

In a world where celebrities dominate headlines and social media feeds, one event stands apart by turning the spotlight on an often-overlooked group of heroes: scientists. The 11th annual Breakthrough Prize ceremony, held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on April 5, 2025, once again brought together an extraordinary mix of the world’s leading researchers and Hollywood luminaries in a celebration that has earned its moniker as the “Oscars of Science.”

Founded by tech visionary Yuri Milner alongside Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, and Anne Wojcicki, the Breakthrough Prize represents a bold reimagining of how scientific achievement is recognized and celebrated in our culture. With six main prizes of $3 million each—significantly exceeding the Nobel Prize’s monetary value—the Breakthrough Prize makes a powerful statement about the importance of scientific advancement to humanity’s future.

A Night Where Scientists Become Stars

The scene at the Barker Hangar was nothing short of spectacular, with A-list celebrities walking the same red carpet as the world’s leading researchers. The juxtaposition was both striking and purposeful: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jodie Foster, and Katy Perry sharing the spotlight with physicists, mathematicians, and life scientists whose work is reshaping our understanding of reality itself.

“I love that science is self-correcting, meaning that when somebody makes a great discovery, then everybody tries to disprove it, to make sure that it’s the truth,” shared eight-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close, whose appreciation for science began with her surgeon father. “A lot of the great discoveries were made from thinking about the impossible.”

This sentiment captures the essence of what Yuri Milner and his co-founders are striving to achieve—not just rewarding scientific breakthroughs but elevating scientists to cultural heroes whose work inspires the public imagination. In a society where athletic and artistic achievements are celebrated far more visibly than scientific ones, the Breakthrough Prize aims to redress this imbalance.

The 2025 Laureates: Transforming Our Understanding

This year’s prize winners exemplify how fundamental research can lead to profound real-world impacts. In the Life Sciences category, five researchers—Daniel J. Drucker, Joel Habener, Jens Juul Holst, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, and Svetlana Mojsov—were recognized for their complementary contributions that led to the development of GLP-1 medicines now transforming the treatment of diabetes and obesity for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

“This year’s Breakthrough Prize laureates have made amazing strides—including treatments for major diseases affecting millions of people worldwide—showing once again the transformative power of curiosity-driven basic science,” noted Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg in their statement about the awards.

Stephen L. Hauser and Alberto Ascherio shared another Life Sciences prize for revolutionizing the understanding and treatment of multiple sclerosis. Their groundbreaking work identified the immune system’s B cells as the primary driver of nerve damage in MS and discovered that infection with the Epstein-Barr virus is the leading risk factor for developing the disease—potentially opening the door to preventative vaccines.

David R. Liu was recognized for developing two powerful gene-editing technologies—base editing and prime editing—that correct mutations in DNA without cutting the double helix. These technologies have already shown life-saving potential in clinical trials for conditions ranging from sickle cell disease to high cholesterol.

“The breakthroughs being recognized this year are extraordinary—including, in my own field, amazing gene-editing technologies that are already having a big impact,” said Anne Wojcicki, Breakthrough Prize co-founder.

A Collaborative Vision of Science

Perhaps most striking was the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, awarded not to an individual but to over 13,000 researchers from more than 70 countries representing four experimental collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. This unprecedented recognition of collective scientific effort highlights how modern science increasingly relies on global cooperation.

The prize money for this award—$3 million allocated across the ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb collaborations—will be donated to the CERN & Society Foundation to fund doctoral students’ research experiences, creating a virtuous cycle of scientific advancement.

“The questions these laureates are asking are among the deepest questions there are—about the workings of life, the nature of the Universe and the abstract landscapes of mathematics,” explained Yuri Milner. “It’s inspiring to see scientists seeking and finding answers to these questions.”

The mathematicians were also well-represented, with Dennis Gaitsgory winning for his central role in proving the geometric Langlands conjecture—a monumental advance expected to have deep implications for number theory, algebraic geometry, and mathematical physics. After dedicating 30 years to this mathematical puzzle, Gaitsgory’s achievement exemplifies the persistence and long-term thinking that characterize transformative scientific work.

Nurturing the Next Generation

Beyond the main prizes, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation awarded six $100,000 New Horizons Prizes to early-career physicists and mathematicians, along with three $50,000 Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes to outstanding women mathematicians who recently completed their PhDs.

This tiered approach to recognition creates a pipeline of support for scientific talent at different career stages, reflecting Yuri Milner’s broader vision as outlined in his Eureka Manifesto: identifying and elevating scientists as heroes, investing in fundamental research, and encouraging universal contribution to knowledge.

Will.i.am, who has been lauded for being an innovator in music, captured this vision perfectly at the ceremony: “This shouldn’t be looked at as like geek work or nerd work. This should be looked at as elegance, excellence, the coolest ish on Earth. Kids from the inner city should aim to be on that stage.”

Cultural Impact Beyond the Ceremony

What makes the Breakthrough Prize ceremony unique is how it leverages the visual language and celebration format of entertainment awards to make cutting-edge research accessible to broader audiences. By having celebrities like Seth Rogen and Edward Norton present awards and incorporating musical performances by artists like Katy Perry, the ceremony creates engaging content that helps non-scientists appreciate the excitement and importance of scientific discovery.

The high production values amplify this impact, bringing scientific achievement into living rooms worldwide. Unlike most scientific recognition, which occurs in specialized journals or academic conferences, the Breakthrough Prize ceremony creates accessible, engaging content that helps the public connect with scientific progress.

Lily Collins, attending the ceremony for her eighth year, explained its appeal: “I’m sitting at tables with Nobel Peace Prize winners, mathematicians and scientists. Broadening our horizons and learning more about the sciences and the world in general is only going to broaden our horizons in whatever craft it is that we do.”

A Legacy of Inspiration

After eleven years, the Breakthrough Prize has distributed more than $326 million in recognition of scientific excellence, but its true impact extends far beyond the monetary awards. By creating a cultural platform where scientists receive the same level of public adulation as movie stars and musicians, Yuri Milner and his co-founders are working to inspire a new generation of scientific explorers.

Jeremy Strong, who recently earned his first Oscar nomination, captured the spirit of the evening perfectly: “I feel privileged to honor the people making breakthroughs in the sciences, mathematics and genetics, and all these things that will transform our lives.”

As science faces mounting challenges—from climate change to public health crises—the visibility and cultural capital provided by the Breakthrough Prize become increasingly important. By celebrating those asking the deepest questions about life, the universe, and mathematics, the ceremony reminds us that human curiosity and the quest for understanding represent some of our noblest pursuits.

Through this unique fusion of glamour and genius, Yuri Milner’s vision for elevating scientific achievement continues to transform how we recognize, celebrate, and ultimately value the researchers whose work shapes humanity’s future. In a world often distracted by the superficial, the Breakthrough Prize ceremony stands as a powerful reminder that our greatest heroes might be found not on movie screens or sports fields, but in laboratories and universities, asking the questions that will define our tomorrow.

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