Young researchers in various fields will also be recognized, including nine researchers who make breakthroughs in astronomy and cosmology. The New Horizons in Physics Awards recognize Michael Johnson and Alexandru Lupsasca for their studies of photon rings (light trapped in orbit around black holes) and their work showing how they can be discovered with future experiments; Laura M. Pérez, Paola Pinilla, Nienke van der Marel and TilBirnstiel, who discovered and characterized dust traps: regions of dynamic gas and dust rings around stars where dust particles accumulate; and Mikhail Ivanov, Oliver Philcox and Marko Simonovic, who studied the structure of the cosmos at the galactic scale and found ways to use this knowledge to contribute new insights to fundamental physics. Today, physics and mathematics are closely linked, and discoveries from one discipline often give powerful tools and concepts to the other. This year’s New Horizons in Mathematics Prize is awarded to Roland Bauerschmidt for his work on probability theory and the renormalization group, a concept that emerged from quantum field theories investigated by the winners of this year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and has become an important object of study in mathematics. Angkana Rüland is being honored for her work, which also addresses ideas from physics, such as transitions between states of matter, which are now studied in mathematical fields such as analysis, the branch of pure mathematics that grew out of calculus. And Michael Groechenig receives the prize for his knowledge of arithmetic geometry.
Hannah Larson wins the Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Award for her work in algebraic geometry; together with Laura Monk for their discoveries on hyperbolic surfaces; and MayukoYamashita for her contributions to mathematical physics and velocity theory.
Full mentions for 2024 winners
2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
Carl H. June
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Michel Sadelain
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
For the development of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell immunotherapy, in which the patient’s T cells are modified to attack and destroy cancer cells.
2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
Sabine Hadida
Paul Negulescu
Fredrick Van Goor
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Developing life-changing drug combinations that repair the defective chloride channel protein in patients with cystic fibrosis.
2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
Thomas Gasser
Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen and German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases
Ellen Sidransky
National Institute for Human Genome Research, National Institutes of Health
Andrew Singleton
National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health
To identify GBA1 and LRRK2 as risk genes for Parkinson’s disease, suggesting that autophagy and lysosomal biology critically contribute to the pathogenesis of the disease.
2024 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
John Cardy
All Souls College, University of Oxford
Alexander Zamolodchikov
Stony Brook University
For well-founded contributions to statistical physics and quantum field theory with diverse and far-reaching applications in various areas of physics and mathematics.
Breakthrough Award 2024 in Mathematics
Simon Brendle
Columbia University
For transformative contributions to differential geometry, including sharp geometric inequalities, many results on Ricci flow and mean curvature flow, and Lawson’s conjecture on minimal 3-sphere tori.
2024 New Horizons Prize in Physics
Michael Johnson
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
Alexandru Lupsasca
Vanderbilt University
Elucidating the substructure and universal properties of black hole photon rings and their proposed detection using next-generation interferometric experiments.
2024 New Horizons Prize in Physics
Mikhail Ivanov
WITH
Oliver Philcox
Columbia University and Simons Foundation
Marko Simonovic
University of Florence
For contributions to our understanding of the large-scale structure of the universe and to the development of new tools to extract fundamental physics from galaxy studies.
2024 New Horizons Prize in Physics
Laura M Perez
University of Chile
Paola Pinilla
University College London
Nienke van der Marel
Leiden Observatory
According to Birnstiel
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
To predict, detect and model dust traps in young circumstellar disks to solve a long-standing problem in planet formation.
New Horizons 2024 Prize in Mathematics
Roland Bauerschmidt
New York University
For outstanding contributions to probability theory and the development of renormalization group techniques.
Michael Groechenig
University of Toronto
For contributions to the theory of rigid local systems and applications of p-adic integration to mirror symmetry and the fundamental lemma.
The number of Rüland
University of Bonn
For contributions to applied analysis, particularly to the analysis of microstructure in solid-solid phase transitions and to the theory of inverse problems.
Prize Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers 2024
Hannah Larson
University of California, Berkeley
(PhD Stanford University 2022)
For advances in Brill-Noether theory and the geometry of the moduli space of curves.
Laura Monk
University of Bristol
(PhD University of Strasbourg 2021)
To improve our understanding of random hyperbolic surfaces of large genera.
Mayuko Yamashita
Kyoto University
(PhD University of Tokyo 2022)
For contributions to mathematical physics, index theory.
About the breakthrough price
For the twelfth year, the Breakthrough Prize, known as the “Oscars® of science,” honors the world’s best scientists. Each prize is worth $3 million and will be awarded in the areas of life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics. In addition, up to three New Horizons in Physics Prizes, up to three New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes and up to three Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes are awarded to early career researchers each year. Honorees attend a gala ceremony to celebrate their achievements and inspire the next generation of scientists.
The Breakthrough Awards were created by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki and sponsored by foundations they founded. Selection committees composed of previous Breakthrough Prize winners in each field select the winners. For information about the Breakthrough Prize, visit breakthroughprize.org.
