Lectures
All new Breakthrough Prize recipients are invited to give lectures targeting a general audience, acquainting them with the ideas and discoveries, including those that have been recognized by the prize and how they fit into the current state of the field. These lectures are also available on our YouTube channel.
April 17, 2025
1/n
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Simons Foundation
April 14, 2025
CAR-T Cell Therapy: Origins and New Directions
Michel Sadelain, immunoschool
March 24, 2025
Accelerating Scientific Discovery with AI
Dennis Hassabis, Cambridge University
February 10, 2025
AlphaFold
John Jumper, University of Chicago
September 11, 2024
Molecular, Neural and Developmental Architecture of Social and Sickness Behavior Circuits
Catherine Dulac, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
September 11, 2024
Genetics and Parkinson's
Thomas Gasser, ParkinsonSocietyBC
August 07, 2024
The Potential for AI in Science and Mathematics
Terence Tao, Oxford University
September 20, 2023
The Future of Neurotechnology in the Discovery and Treatment of Neurodevelopmental and Neurodegenerative Disease
Huda Zoghbi, Purdue University
September 12, 2023
The Story Behind the Development of Next Generation DNA
David Klenerman, King’s College London
August 02, 2023
Big New Accelerators and the Future of Particle Physics
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Instituto de Física Teórica, IFT-UNESP
July 28, 2023
The Meaning of Spacetime
Juan Maldacena, Perimeter Institute
May 30, 2023
"Designer DNA Drug" Therapy for Neurodegenerative Disease
Don Cleveland, Keio University
May 26, 2023
Using AI to Accelerate Scientific Discovery
Demis Hassabis, EPFL
February 06, 2023
Pharmacological Adaptation of Proteostasis to Ameliorate Aging-associated Degenerative Diseases
Jeffery Kelly, Broad Institute
January 23, 2023
Non-Measurability of the Inverse Theorem for the Gowers Norms
Terence Tao, Institute for Advanced Study
January 06, 2023
A Stroll Around the Critical Potts Model
Martin Hairer, Joint Mathematics Meetings
December 01, 2022
Quantum Matter, Clocks, and Fundamental Physics
Jun Ye, Caltech
November 15, 2022
Harnessing Plants Initiative
Joanne Chory, CCG UNAM
October 07, 2022
On a Theorem of Furstenberg
Alex Eskin, CIRM
September 22, 2022
A Mathematical Journey Through Scales
Martin Hairer, Oxford University
July 29, 2020
The Discovery of Pulsars – A Graduate Student's Story
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Astrofísica UC
July 03, 2020
Recent Progress on the Black Hole Information Paradox
Juan Maldacena, (Virtual) Strings 2020
July 02, 2020
Volumes of Supermoduli Spaces
Edward Witten, (Virtual) Strings 2020
November 20, 2019
New Measurements of the Expansion Rate of the Universe
Adam Riess, Brown University
November 18, 2019
The Warped Side of the Universe
Kip Thorne, Cardiff University
October 03, 2019
Constant Change: The Ever-Developing Brain
Cori Bargmann, Rockefeller University
August 18, 2019
Unravelling the Universe with Mathematical Puzzles
Cumrun Vafa, Uppsala University
May 21, 2019
Harry Steenbock Lectures in Biochemistry Lecture 2
Hans Clevers, University of Wisconsin
May 20, 2019
Harry Steenbock Lectures in Biochemistry Lecture 1
Hans Clevers, University of Wisconsin
March 13, 2019
The Future of Humanity
Ed Boyden, MIT
March 05, 2019
Harry Steenbock Lectures in Biochemistry Lecture 2
Huda Zoghbi, University of Wisconsin
March 04, 2019
Harry Steenbock Lectures in Biochemistry Lecture 1
Huda Zoghbi, University of Wisconsin
March 01, 2019
Quantum Minimal Surfaces
Maxim Kontsevich, IHES
January 30, 2019
Obesity, Diabetes and Cancer: The Insulin Connection
Lewis Cantley, JumpstartMD Weight of the Nation Conference 2018
January 24, 2019
Opportunites and Ethics of Editing Genomes
Jennifer Doudna, Stanford University
October 26, 2018
The Discovery of Pulsars
Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Perimeter Institute
October 09, 2018
PI 3-Kinase and Cancer Metabolism
Lewis Cantley, JCB-JEM Symposium
August 22, 2018
Chan Zuckerberg Science
Cori Bargmann, Keynote, AAAS Meeting
July 17, 2018
Light Rays and Black Holes
Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study
July 16, 2018
Quantum Field Theory and Entanglement
Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study
July 16, 2018
Introduction to Information Theory
Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study
July 11, 2018
Black holes, SCFT's and Topological Strings
Cumrun Vafa, ICTP
June 22, 2018
Vaporizing and Freezing the Riemann Zeta Function
Terence Tao, Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca
June 20, 2018
The End of Spacetime
Nima Arkani-Hamed, SLAC
June 15, 2018
Fifty Shades of Shade
Joanne Chory, Carnegie Science Embryology
May 24, 2018
Geometrodynamics: The Nonlinear Dynamics of Curved Spacetime
Kip Thorne, ICTP
May 16, 2018
Reverse Engineering the Universe
Andrei Linde, Stanford University
May 11, 2018
Wormholes
Juan Maldacena, Harvard Black Hole Initiative
May 11, 2018
The EFThedron
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Harvard Black Hole Initiative
May 09, 2018
Prospects and Challenges for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and Astrophysics
Rainer Weiss, Black Hole Iniative Keynote
May 07, 2018
Cancer Research: from Gene Identification to Personalized Medicine
Bert Vogelstein, Tel Aviv University
May 04, 2018
The Cool Alter-Ego of a Black Hole
Juan Maldacena and Douglas Stanford, Institute for Advanced Study
April 03, 2018
Exceptional Holonomy and Related Geometric Structures: Basic Theory
Simon Donaldson, Institute for Advanced Study
March 10, 2018
Beyond the Cradle
Rainer Weiss, MIT
February 26, 2018
Tools for Mapping and Repairing Brain Circuitry
Edward Boyden, Stanford University
February 21, 2018
Future of Our Universe
Ashoke Sen, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics
January 08, 2018
Symmetries, Duality, and the Unity of Physics
Nathan Seiberg, TIFR
January 04, 2018
Infrared Divergences in QED and Quantum Gravity
Andrew Strominger, Instituto Balseiro - Académico
December 20, 2017
The Innovators: Don Cleveland
Don Cleveland, KRWG
December 06, 2017
Using Ancient Genomes and Model Systems to Study Uniquely Human Phenotypes
Svante Paabo, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
December 05, 2017
What is Autophagy? A Dynamic Cellular Recycling Process
Yosniro Ohsumi, Molecular Frontiers Symposium
December 05, 2017
Near-coherent Scrambling
Alexei Kitaev, Institute for Advanced Study
November 15, 2017
When Good Genes Go Bad: Deciphering the Cancer Genome
Titia de Lange, The Rockefeller University
November 09, 2017
CERN: Unravelling Mysteries of Physics and Promoting International Cooperation
Fabiola Gianotti, Canada Foundation for Innovation
November 02, 2017
Stem Cells: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?
Hans Clevers, Max Planck Society
October 26, 2017
The Story of Rett Syndrome & Its Insights into Neuropsychiatric Disorders
Huda Zoghbi, Canada Gairdner International Awards
October 26, 2017
Rewriting the Code of Life
Jennifer A. Doudna, CASW
October 16, 2017
Keynote Address
Cornelia I. Bargmann, National Academy of Medicine
July 08, 2017
New Chemical Engineering Approaches to Convergence
Robert S. Langer, MIT
May 18, 2017
The Ribosome - Mothership of Life: Can It Tell Us Where We Came From?
Harry Noller, UC Santa Cruz
May 08, 2017
Genomics, Big Data, and Medicine
Richard P. Lifton, Icahn School of Medicine
May 01, 2017
Gene editing and genome engineering with CRISPR-Cas9
Emmanuelle Charpentier, Molecular Frontiers Symposium Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
April 05, 2017
Anti-Angiogenic Therapy: From Bench To Clinic
Napoleone Ferrara, Wound Healing Foundation
April 05, 2017
Unwinding the Amplituhedron
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Institute for Advanced Study
April 03, 2017
A New Measurement of the Expansion of the Universe
Adam Riess, ESA
March 11, 2017
Interactive Keynote: Jennifer Doudna — SXSW 2017
Jennifer Doudna, SXSW 2017
February 23, 2017
Secrets of the Human Genome
Eric Lander, MIT
January 30, 2017
Bunyan Lecture 2017
Rainer Weiss, Stanford University
January 30, 2017
Integrability and Four-Dimensional Gauge Theory
Edward Witten, UCLA
January 11, 2017
How Telomeres Solve the End-Protection Problem
Titia de Lange, iBiology
January 11, 2017
Telomeres and Human Disease
Titia de Lange, iBiology
December 08, 2016
Ancient DNA View of Human Origins
Svante Pääbo, University of Wisconsin-Madison
November 08, 2016
Integrated Brainwide Structural and Functional Analysis
Karl Deisseroth, UCLA
October 05, 2016
2016 Emilio Segré Lecture
Rainer Weiss, UC Berkeley
September 20, 2016
Development of Optogenetics
Karl Deisseroth, iBiology
September 19, 2016
Lecture on Turbulence
Alexander Polyakov, Niels Bohr International Academy
September 17, 2016
The SYK Model, AdS_2 and Conformal Symmetry
Juan Maldacena, Institute for Advanced Study
September 15, 2016
Some Boundary States for Bosons
Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study
September 15, 2016
Nati Puts You On Shell
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Institute for Advanced Study
September 15, 2016
A 2D Stress Tensor for 4D Gravity
Andrew Strominger, Institute for Advanced Study
September 02, 2016
Dolly @ 20 Symposium
Shinya Yamanaka, The Roslin Institute
July 11, 2016
Cancer Genomes and Their Implications for Prevention
Bert Vogelstein, MIT
July 02, 2016
Resurgence and exact quantization via holomorphic Floer cohomology
Maxim Kontsevich, Collège de France
July 02, 2016
Physics and Mathematics for the End of Spacetime
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Collège de France
June 04, 2016
Reflections on Precision Medicine and Cancer Moonshots
Charles Sawyers, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
May 02, 2016
Secrets of the Human Genome
Eric Lander, MIT
May 02, 2016
Epigenetics in Development and Disease
David Allis, IBiology
May 02, 2016
Epigenetics: Why Your DNA Isn’t Enough
David Allis, IBiology
April 14, 2016
A Deeper Understanding of the Universe from 2 km Underground
Art McDonald, Perimeter Institute
April 11, 2016
The Transformative CRISPR-Cas9 Technology in Genome Engineering: Lessons Learned from Bacteria
Emmanuelle Charpentier, HKUST
March 30, 2016
Genes, Neurons, Circuits and Behavior: An Integrated Approach in a Compact Brain
Cori Bargmann, MIT
March 25, 2016
Immune Checkpoint Blockade in Cancer Therapy
James Allison, UC Berkeley
March 21, 2016
Black Holes and the Structure of Spacetime
Juan Maldacena, Harvard University
March 11, 2016
From the Big Bang to Black Holes and Gravitational Waves
Kip Thorne, Caltech
February 19, 2016
Engineering Revolutions
Edward Boyden, World Economic Forum
December 09, 2015
Can We Create New and Better Biomaterials
Robert Langer, National Academy of Engineering
November 24, 2015
Masterclass with Robert Weinberg
Robert Weinberg, MIT
November 20, 2015
Kaehler-Einstein Metrics and Algebraic Geometry 1
Simon Donaldson, Harvard University
November 20, 2015
Kaehler-Einstein Metrics and Algebraic Geometry 2
Simon Donaldson, Harvard University
November 12, 2015
How CRISPR Lets Us Edit or DNA
Jennifer Doudna, TED
November 11, 2015
Quantum Gravity
Juan Maldacena, Institute for Advanced Study
November 11, 2015
Cosmology and the Arrow of Time
Alan Guth, University of Bern, Lecture 3
November 10, 2015
Eternal Inflation and Its Implications
Alan Guth, University of Bern, Lecture 2
November 09, 2015
Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse?
Alan Guth, University of Bern, Lecture 1
October 15, 2015
From Stem Cells to Cures
Shinya Yamanaka, Gladstone Institutes
October 14, 2015
The Dark Universe
Adam Riess, The Royal Institution
October 08, 2015
The Erdős Discrepancy Problem
Terence Tao, Institute for Pure & Applied Mathematics (IPAM)
October 06, 2015
Epigenetics Changes Everything: Revisiting the Nature vs. Nurture Debate
David Allis, Rockefeller University
September 30, 2015
History of Medical Success, Deep Brain Stimulation
Alim-Louis Benabid, The Brain Forum
September 21, 2015
Head & Neck Cancer Symposium: Keynote Presentation
Lew Cantley, Boston University
July 31, 2015
Wnt signaling, Lgr5 Stem Cells, Organoids and Cancer
Hans Clevers, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
July 30, 2015
Fermion Path Integrals and Topological Phases
Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study
July 27, 2015
Fun with Free Field Theory
Nathan Seiberg, Institute for Advanced Study
June 27, 2015
What is String Theory?
Ashoke Sen, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
June 27, 2015
The Frontiers of Fundamental Physics
Nathan Seiberg, Strings 2015
June 27, 2015
Physics and Geometry
Cumrun Vafa, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
June 27, 2015
The Edges of the Universe: Black Holes, Horizons and Strings
Andrew Strominger, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
June 27, 2015
Calculate + Observe: Fundamental Physics in the 21st Century
Nima Arkani-Hamed, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences
June 07, 2015
Genomic Analyses of Neurodegeneration
John Hardy, FENS
March 26, 2015
The Accelerating Universe
Adam Riess, Loyola University Maryland
March 06, 2015
Universe or Multiverse?
Andrei Linde, UC Berkeley
March 02, 2015
Themes and Variations in Circuits and Behavior
Cori Bargmann, MIT
February 24, 2015
Categorification of the Fourier Transform
Jacob Lurie, Arizona State University
February 03, 2015
On Mathematical Aspects of String Theory
Cumrun Vafa, Instituto de Matemática Pura e Aplicada
January 22, 2015
Targeting Immune Checkpoints in Cancer Therapy
James Allison, TAMEST
January 19, 2015
Light in the Body, Enablin Diagnosis and Imaging
Hans Clevers, International Year of Light
January 12, 2015
CRISPR
Jennifer Doudna, Rosalind Franklin Society
October 31, 2014
Using Fixed Circuits to Generate Flexible Behaviors
Cornelia Bargmann, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ
October 09, 2014
Reading Genomes to Unlock the Secrets of Brain Disorders
Eric Lander, One Mind's 20th Music Festival for Brain Health
October 09, 2014
Knots and Quantum Theory
Edward Witten, ICTP, Trieste, Italy
October 08, 2014
The Future of Genomic Medicine
Anne Wojcicki and Richard Lifton, National Human Genome Research Institute
September 24, 2014
Dark Matter
Heidi Newberg, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
June 23, 2014
The Ding functional, Berndtsson Convexity and Moment Maps
Simon Donaldson, IHES, Bures-sur-Yvette, France
May 19, 2014
Centers for Mendelian Genomics Presentation
Richard Lifton, National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research
January 30, 2014
Biomaterials for the 21st Century and How They Will Change Our Lives
Robert Langer, Radcliffe Institute
January 28, 2014
Electron Superhighway: A Quantum Leap for Computing
Shoucheng Zhang, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Palo Alto, CA
December 20, 2013
From IR to UV
Nima Arkani-Hamed, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy
December 04, 2013
What's Next?
Nathan Seiberg, IAS
November 15, 2013
Out of Equilibrium
Alexander Polyakov, IHES
November 14, 2013
In Conversation: Nima Arkani-Hamed with Graham Farmelo
London Science Museum
November 07, 2013
Wall-crossing and Geometry at Infinity of Betti Moduli Spaces
Maxim Kontsevich, IHES
November 06, 2013
Stem Cells: Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde?
Hans Clevers, TEDxAmersterdam
October 30, 2013
N = 4 Super Yang-Mills Theory on the Coulomb Branch
John Schwarz, IHES
August 20, 2013
Wormholes and Entangled States
Juan Maldacena, KITP, Santa Barbara, CA
May 13, 2013
Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse?
Alan Guth, Hunter College (CUNY), New York, NY
May 07, 2013
The Biology of Genomes Keynote
Eric Lander, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
April 08, 2013
The Higgs Boson and Our Life
Fabiola Gianotti, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
March 25, 2013
From the Higgs to the Realm of the Unknown
Joseph Incandela, National Science Foundation
March 11, 2013
Universe or Multiverse?
Andrei Linde, State University of New York at Stony Brook
March 06, 2013
Gravity and Quantum Mechanics: The Quest for Unification
Joe Polchinski, KITP, Santa Barbara, CA
March 03, 2013
String Theory and the Universe
Edward Witten, Hunter College (CUNY), New York, NY
February 20, 2013
Back to the Big Bang: From the LHC to the Higgs, and Beyond
Lyn Evans, TRIUMF
February 13, 2013
The Discovery of the Higgs Boson
Guido Tonelli, ITEP Winter School of Physics
December 12, 2012
The Search for a Unified Theory
Ashoke Sen, Presidency University
October 26, 2012
The Inevitability of Physical Laws: Why the Higgs Has to Exist
Nima Arkani-Hamed, IAS
October 03, 2012
The Symmetry and Simplicity of the Laws of Nature and the Higgs Boson
Juan Maldacena, IAS
October 01, 2012
On the Higgs Boson Announcement from the LHC
Tejinder Virdee, Imperial College London