The Twelfth Breakthrough Prize Ceremony Honors World-Leading Scientists at Glittering Hollywood Gala

LOS ANGELES – April 19, 2026 – On Saturday evening, under the lights of Hollywood, the twelfth Breakthrough Prize ceremony honored scientists responsible for landmark advances in gene therapy, neurodegenerative disease, theories of fundamental particles and forces, and the mathematics of critical systems.

Known around the world as “the Oscars® of Science,” the gala gathered prominent figures from across science, technology, business, entertainment and the arts – alongside current and past Breakthrough Prize laureates – for an evening devoted to celebrating scientific progress and the people who make it possible. After walking the red carpet, scientists were welcomed onstage by celebrity presenters to receive their awards.

The ceremony was held in Los Angeles, with actor and Emmy Award winner James Corden returning for the fourth time to host the evening. In a hilarious monologue, Corden joked good-naturedly about the celebrities in attendance and current events. Before proceeding with the awards, he showed clips from films including Ghostbusters and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids to demonstrate how Hollywood hasn’t always taken scientists seriously – which is precisely why the Breakthrough Prize puts the spotlight on critical scientific discoveries. As the show unfolded, that ethos was borne out as a host of luminaries from the worlds of entertainment and entrepreneurship took turns in lauding the achievements of the laureates and the broader impact of fundamental discoveries that have transformed our world.

Six Breakthrough Prizes of $3 million each were conferred in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, and Mathematics. This year’s prize money totals $18.75 million, bringing the amount conferred over the 15 years of the Breakthrough Prize to more than $340 million.

Academy Award-winning actors Octavia Spencer and Sean Penn awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences to Stuart H. Orkin and Swee Lay Thein for research that transformed sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia from incurable conditions to treatable ones through gene-editing therapy. Their work identified BCL11A as the master switch controlling fetal hemoglobin, leading directly to the development of Casgevy – the first CRISPR-based medicine approved for any disease. Thein recalled her unlikely path: “As a kid playing on old railway tracks in Malaysia, I never dreamed that I would be here today.” Orkin reflected on five decades of research, saying, “There is no better story to refute those who doubt the value of science.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and AirBNB co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky presented the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics to the Muon g-2 Collaborations at CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Fermilab, recognizing decades of work by scientists and engineers from dozens of countries who pushed experimental precision to extraordinary levels in measuring the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon – a key test for undiscovered particles and forces. In a creative flourish, a ballerina appeared onstage, pirouetting and circling to demonstrate the muon’s spinning magnetic moment. As Chesky invoked the “magnetic moment” of the celebratory evening, physicist David Hertzog, accepting the prize on behalf of 383 scientists and engineers, held up the experiments as “a wonderful example of cross-disciplinary international collaboration in science.”

A new physics prize, the Vera Rubin New Frontiers Prize, was announced by NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang and Breakthrough Prize co-founder Yuri Milner. After a tribute to the great astronomer Vera Rubin, who discovered key evidence for dark matter, and in homage to whom NVIDIA’s new chip platform is named, they introduced inaugural laureate Carolina Figueiredo. The new prize recognizes women physicists who have recently completed their PhDs and already made important contributions to science – in this case revealing hidden relations among quantum field theories. Figueiredo described how physics can now “meaningfully address the deepest of questions, such as the very origins of space and time.”

Supermodel Gigi Hadid and Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana presented the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences to Katherine A. High and husband-and-wife team Jean Bennett and Albert Maguire. They were recognized for developing the first FDA-approved gene replacement therapy, which has restored sight to patients born with Leber congenital amaurosis, a rare inherited retinal disease that typically leads to total blindness in early adulthood. Before the laureates were introduced, Hanna Reif, who received the treatment as a seven-year-old, took the stage to describe how it changed her life and even enabled her to develop a passion for horseback riding. Bennett spoke of the moment their work crossed from laboratory to clinic: “After witnessing blind puppies develop vision after treatment, it became a moral imperative to bring gene therapy to blind people.” Maguire drew a laugh from the audience, recounting that the project began when he and Bennett were dating: “I thought I was just making clever conversation. Little did I know she was taking me seriously.” High spoke of the treatments made possible by the Human Genome Project, for conditions including blindness and spinal muscular atrophy, stating, “Each of these novel treatments have dramatically altered the lives of people born with these conditions.”

Following this, Corden returned to the stage to join YouTube sensation Mark Rober, who demonstrated to the delighted audience how to create a massive cloud using liquid nitrogen and boiling water.

Freestyle Skiing superstar and Olympic gold medalist Eileen Gu and five-time World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen honored Clifford Brangwynne and Anthony Hyman with the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their groundbreaking discovery of a new fundamental mechanism of cellular organization. Awarded the Prize in 2023, their appearance at the ceremony was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hyman recalled the drama of the moment of discovery, looking into the microscope, with his hands sweating and his heart pounding. Brangwynne offered encouragement to young people: “To all those kids who don’t quite fit in: be yourself, get comfortable being uncomfortable, and stay curious.”

Breakthrough Prize co-founder Sergey Brin and influencer and health coach GG Soto presented the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics to Frank Merle for his transformative work on nonlinear evolution equations – the mathematical descriptions of how waves, fluids, and other dynamic systems change over time. Merle’s insights have overturned fundamental assumptions in the field, including the surprising discovery that equations long thought to be stable can in fact blow up in finite time. Brin described how his ideas “seek hidden structure – and hidden beauty – within chaos.” Accepting the prize, Merle described mathematics in lyrical terms: “Great science can be a game you play with Gods, where every gain is a spiritual delicacy.”

As part of the In Memoriam segment, Tom Hanks paid tribute via video to astronaut Jim Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, who passed away last summer at the age of 97. Hanks, who portrayed Lovell in the 1995 film Apollo 13, commented, “Jim Lovell was an extraordinary man, a great explorer, a true scientist, and I think one of the best examples of being an American.” Brian Grazer and Ron Howard spoke onstage in remembrance of Lovell, recounting the harrowing story of the Apollo 13 mission, and of the early Apollo 13 test audiences’ disbelief that the film was a true story.

Following this, in tribute to great scientists who passed over the last year, acclaimed Grammy-winning soprano Renée Fleming sang “Hallelujah,” accompanied by composer and pianist Billy Childs. To celebrate the life of the late Nobel Prize-winning scientist Sir John Gurdon, Academy Award winning actor Robert Downey Jr. read an excerpt from an infamous letter sent to Gurdon’s parents while he was a student at Eton. The letter, from the prestigious school’s biology master, decried his “disastrous half term” and described his dream of becoming a scientist as “ridiculous.”

Singer, songwriter, and EGOT winner John Legend and Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis presented the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences to Rosa Rademakers and Bryan Traynor for independently discovering the most common genetic cause of both ALS and frontotemporal dementia – a repeat expansion mutation in the C9orf72 gene. Before the laureates took the stage, scientist-physician Yentli Soto Albrecht delivered one of the most powerful speeches of the evening. Soto Albrecht carries the very mutation Rademakers and Traynor identified, and has devoted her life to finding a treatment. She spoke of her father, who passed away from ALS, and appeared onstage wearing a dress decorated with her mutation: the six-letter DNA repeat GGGGCC. “My dad and I share a genetic fate, but I’m changing my future,” she said. “Rosa Rademakers and Bryan Traynor discovered our genetic mutation. They mapped the battlefield; now we can wage the war.” Laureate Rosa Rademakers told the audience, “Genetics has given us clear direction, and I am confident that we will soon be able to change lives.” Bryan Traynor added: “We won’t stop until we have better treatments and, ultimately, a cure.”

The incredible award-winning actresses Michelle Williams and Lily Collins shared the story of Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics winner David J. Gross – his intellectual family life, discovery of Einstein’s book on physics, and subsequent six decades of significant contributions, including major theoretical breakthroughs and leadership across the international science community. Receiving his prize, he spoke about how through the journey of theoretical physics, “every discovery reveals new vistas; as knowledge grows, so does our awareness of what we do not know.”

One of the discoveries resulting from David Gross’s work is the “quark-gluon plasma” – the unimaginably hot state of matter that existed in the first moments of the Universe. And that was also the topic of the winning video in this year’s Breakthrough Junior Challenge, a global video competition for high-school students. Breakthrough Prize co-founder Julia Milner and, returning to the stage, Mark Rober presented the prize to Matea Cañizares, 18, from Quito, Ecuador. After a video showing the powerful moment when Cañizares was surprised with the news of her win, she mounted the stage and said, “I grew up close to the sun, at 10,000 feet on the equator. So close to a star bursting with energy that one can feel how it holds the story of the universe’s origins.” She dedicated her prize to the spirit of international collaboration: “We depend on each other’s unique curiosity and talents to continue expanding our knowledge.”

To commemorate this message, legendary American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer Lionel Richie performed a rousing rendition of his global hit “We Are the World,” supported by a choir of children in the audience, as well as seven countries around the world that brought the audience to its feet.

Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway and climber Alex Honnold presented a video telling the story of Baby KJ, a child cured of a rare genetic disease through prime editing and CRISPR – technologies pioneered by previous Breakthrough Prize laureates Jennifer Doudna and David Liu. Honnold traced the chain of curiosity-driven discovery from Watson and Crick’s double helix to CRISPR to prime editing, noting that this chain “is starting to touch real lives – starting to rewrite fates that once seemed set in stone.” Baby KJ and his parents Kyle and Nicole Muldoon, along with Breakthrough Prize laureate David Liu, physician-scientists Kiran Musunuru and Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, and former FDA director Peter Marks, who expedited the approval of the drug, were all present at the event, receiving a prolonged standing ovation from the audience.

To triumphantly close the show, David Guetta and Ava Max performed a spectacular version of “Forever Young” as all the evening’s laureates returned to the stage for a final standing ovation.

Among the other notable names contributing to the glamour of the evening were Ben Affleck, Christina Aguilera, Darren Aronofsky, Orlando Bloom, Jessica Chastain, Scott Cooper, Billy Crudup and Naomi Watts, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Gal Gadot, James Gray, Paris Hilton, Ke Huy Quan, Oscar Isaac, Patty Jenkins, Jewel, Gayle King, Jeff Koons, Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo, Shawn Levy, Rob Lowe and Sheryl Berkoff, Bennett Miller, Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Edward Norton, Alex Pall, Zoe Saldaña, Maria Sharapova, Salma Hayek Pinault and François-Henri Pinault, Margot Robbie, Evan Speigel and Miranda Kerr, Drew Taggart, Chrissy Teigen, Olivia Wilde, and Michelle Yeoh.

Leaders from across the business and the technology community in attendance included Marc Andreessen, Nicolas Berggruen, Jim Breyer, Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla, Juliet de Baubigny, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, Barry Diller, Michael Dell, Brex CEO Henrique Dubugras, Spotify Executive Chairman Daniel Ek, Atlassian CEO Scott Farquhar, Bill Gates, AirBNB co-founder Joe Gebbia, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi, Khan Academy CEO and founder Salman Khan, Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz, Moderna co-founder Dr. Robert Langer, Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob, PayPal CEO Enrique Lores, Lightspark co-founder and CEO David Marcus, Lightspeed partner and co-founder Ravi Mhatre, Kering CEO Luca de Meo, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, Wendi Murdoch, Elon Musk, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Tiktok US CEO Adam Presser, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, Rivian Automotive CEO RJ Scaringe, Relativity Space CEO Eric Schmidt, Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Telmex owner Carlos Slim, Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas, Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, Robinhood co-founder and CEO Vlad Tenev, KresusLabs founder and CEO Trevor Traina, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

For the twelfth time, the show was directed and produced by executive producers Charlie Haykel and Juliane Hare. It was the first since the passing last year of legendary producer Don Mischer, who oversaw the previous eleven Breakthrough Prize ceremonies.

The show will premiere on YouTube on Sunday, April 26^th at 3 PM Eastern / 12 PM Pacific.

About the Ceremony Producers

The Breakthrough Prize ceremony was produced by Executive Producers Charlie Haykel and Juliane Hare in cooperation with the Breakthrough Prize. Veterans of some of television's largest and most prestigious live events, the two were formerly partners at Don Mischer Productions and now produce independently. They share a body of work that includes Super Bowl Halftime Shows, the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Academy Awards pre-show, and Olympic Opening Ceremonies, in addition to the Breakthrough Prize, which they have produced together for 12 consecutive years. Haykel is the founder of Extra Special Entertainment; Hare is a Daytime Emmy Award-winning producer.

About Breakthrough Prize

Known popularly as the “Oscars® of Science,” the Breakthrough Prize recognizes the research achievements of the world’s top scientists, awarding approximately $15 million annually in prizes. Each prize is $3 million and presented in the fields of Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics. In addition, up to three New Horizons in Physics Prizes ($100,000), up to three New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes ($100,000), and up to three Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes ($50,000) are given out to early-career researchers each year. Laureates attend a gala award ceremony designed to celebrate their achievements and inspire the next generation of scientists. The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki and have been sponsored by foundations established by them. Selection Committees composed of previous Breakthrough Prize laureates in each field choose the winners. Information on the Breakthrough Prize is available at breakthroughprize.org.

About Breakthrough Junior Challenge

The Breakthrough Junior Challenge, founded by Julia and Yuri Milner, is a global science video competition, aiming to develop and demonstrate young people’s knowledge of science and scientific principles and communications skills; generate excitement in these fields; support STEM career choices; and engage the imagination and interest of the public-at-large in key concepts of fundamental science.

About the Breakthrough Prize Foundation

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation is a charitable foundation founded by science philanthropist and technology investor, Yuri Milner and his wife Julia, dedicated to advancing fundamental knowledge, celebrating scientific achievement, and utilizing scientific and technological innovations to improve people’s lives and inspire future generations. The Foundation’s programs include the Breakthrough Prize, which recognizes the world’s top scientists in the fields of Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics; the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, an annual global video competition for students to inspire creative scientific thinking; and the Breakthrough Initiatives, a suite of science programs investigating the fundamental questions of life in the Universe. Most recently, other philanthropic activities of Julia and Yuri Milner have included humanitarian efforts both in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukrainian refugee crisis.

Information on the Breakthrough Initiative is available at breakthroughinitiatives.org.
Information on the Breakthrough Junior Challenge at breakthroughjuniorchallenge.org.
Information on Yuri Milner at www.yurimilner.com.

Contact

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