Gilles Brassard (Université de Montréal) has awarded the 2023 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his foundational work in quantum information, the world’s largest science prize. He shares this prize with Charles H. Bennett, David Deutsch and Peter Shor.
In mathematics Daniel Spielman of Yale University was given recognition for multiple discoveries in theoretical computer science and mathematics.
In Life Science Clifford Brangwynne and Anthony Hyman received the prize for discovering a new mechanism of cellular organization. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper were recognized for the development of AlphaFold, which predicts the structure of proteins. The prize was also given to Emmanuel Mignot and Masashi Yanagisawa for the discovery of causes of narcolepsy – the chronic sleep disorder characterized by overwhelming daytime drowsiness and sudden attacks of sleep.
The Breakthrough Prizes, created in 2010 by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, are the most richly endowed awards in science, disbursing more than the Nobel prizes.
The Breakthrough Prizes are international awards conferred under three categories – mathematics, fundamental physics and life sciences.
The Breakthrough Prizes were conferred for the first time in 2012 and the ceremony was hosted by Morgan Freeman.
Awardees receive 3 million USD each in prize money, which is higher than the 1 million USD received by Nobel laureates.
This year, three prizes were conferred in the life sciences category, one for mathematics and one for fundamental physics.
