Fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics

Breakthrough Prize: winners and how it is awarded

The Breakthrough Prizes are given each year in fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics. They were founded by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. The 2026 laureates were announced in Los Angeles on 18 April 2026.¹

Winners

1. 2026Muon g-2 Collaborations at CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermilab¹Fundamental Physics. For decades of contributions to measuring the muon's anomalous magnetic moment
2. 2026David J. Gross¹Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. For a lifetime of contributions to theoretical physics, from the strong force to string theory
3. 2026Jean Bennett, Katherine A. High, Albert Maguire¹Life Sciences. For a therapy for inherited retinal degeneration that became the first gene therapy approved by the US FDA
4. 2026Rosa Rademakers, Bryan Traynor¹Life Sciences. For discovering the most common genetic cause of ALS and frontotemporal dementia
5. 2026Stuart H. Orkin, Swee Lay Thein¹Life Sciences. For explaining the mechanism of the switch from fetal to adult haemoglobin
6. 2026Frank Merle¹Mathematics. For advances on nonlinear evolution equations and their stability
7. 2025ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb collaborations at CERN^3,2Fundamental Physics. For contributions to four experiments at the Large Hadron Collider
8. 2025Gerardus 't Hooft^3,2Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. For half a century of contributions to quantum field theory and the Standard Model
9. 2025Daniel J. Drucker, Joel Habener, Jens Juul Holst, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, Svetlana Mojsov^3,2Life Sciences. For identifying GLP-1 and developing it into drugs for diabetes and obesity
10. 2025Stephen L. Hauser, Alberto Ascherio^3,2Life Sciences. For discovering key causes of multiple sclerosis
11. 2025David R. Liu^3,2Life Sciences. For inventing technologies that find and correct errors in DNA
12. 2025Dennis Gaitsgory^3,2Mathematics
13. 2024John Cardy, Alexander Zamolodchikov²Fundamental Physics
14. 2024Simon Brendle²Mathematics
15. 2023Charles H. Bennett, Gilles Brassard, David Deutsch, Peter Shor²Fundamental Physics
16. 2023Daniel A. Spielman²Mathematics
17. 2022Hidetoshi Katori, Jun Ye²Fundamental Physics
18. 2022Takuro Mochizuki²Mathematics
19. 2021Eric Adelberger, Jens H. Gundlach, Blayne Heckel²Fundamental Physics
20. 2021Steven Weinberg²Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
21. 2021Martin Hairer²Mathematics

Sources

1. Breakthrough Prize Foundation, Breakthrough Prize Announces 2026 Laureates (18 April 2026)
2. Breakthrough Prize Foundation, News (28 October 2026)
3. Breakthrough Prize Foundation, 11th Breakthrough Prize ceremony (7 April 2025)