Eight scientists have been awarded a total of $21-million in prizes that honor achievements in physics and life sciences, according to The New York Times and a news release from the foundations that sponsor the awards.
Yuri Milner, a Russian entrepreneur, led the establishment of the two awards, which are known as the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Mr. Milner’s foundation created the physics prize last year, and he later led a group of Internet luminaries in setting up the life-sciences prize.
The six winners of the life-sciences prize, who won $3-million each, are James P. Allison of the University of Texas’ M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Mahlon R. DeLong of Emory University (see Chronicle article), Michael N. Hall of the University of Basel, Robert S. Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (see Chronicle article), Richard P. Lifton of Yale University, and Alexander J. Varshavsky of the California Institute of Technology.
The two winners of the physics award—Michael B. Green of the University of Cambridge and John H. Schwarz of Caltech—split an additional $3-million.
Mr. Milner and Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, also announced the creation of another lucrative prize, the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics. The details of that $3-million honor will be announced later.