Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
International science award since 2012
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Worth US$3 million, the prize is the most lucrative physics prize in the world and is more than twice the amount given to the Nobel Prize awardees.
Unlike the annual Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, the Special Breakthrough Prize may be awarded at any time for outstanding achievements, while the prize money is still US$3 million.
Physics Frontiers Prize has only been awarded for two years. Laureates are automatically nominated for next year's Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. If they are not awarded the prize the next year, they will each receive US$300,000 and be automatically nominated for the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in the next five years.
Laureates
This is a listing of the laureates by year (including Special Prize winners):
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New Horizons in Physics Prize
The New Horizons in Physics Prize, awarded to promising junior researchers, carries an award of $100,000.
Vera Rubin New Frontiers Prize
In 2026, the Vera Rubin New Frontier Prize was inaugurated in honor of Vera Rubin. The prize recognizes female physicists within two years of their PhDs who have already made important contributions to science.
Trophy
The Fundamental Physics Prize trophy, a work of art created by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, is a silver sphere with a coiled vortex inside. The form is a toroid, or doughnut shape, resulting from two sets of intertwining three-dimensional spirals. Found in nature, these spirals are seen in animal horns, nautilus shells, whirlpools, and even galaxies and black holes.
Ceremony
The name of the 2013 prize winner was unveiled at the culmination of a ceremony which took place on the evening of March 20, 2013 at the Geneva International Conference Centre. The ceremony was hosted by Hollywood actor and science enthusiast Morgan Freeman. The evening honored the 2013 laureates − 16 outstanding scientists including Stephen Hawking and CERN scientists who led the decades-long effort to discover the Higgs-like particle at the Large Hadron Collider. Sarah Brightman and Russian pianist Denis Matsuev performed for the guests of the ceremony.
Criticism
Some have expressed reservations about such new science mega-prizes.
What's not to like? Quite a lot, according to a handful of scientists... You cannot buy class, as the old saying goes, and these upstart entrepreneurs cannot buy their prizes the prestige of the Nobels. The new awards are an exercise in self-promotion for those behind them, say scientists. They could distort the meritocracy of peer-review-led research. They could cement the status quo of peer-reviewed research. They do not fund peer-reviewed research. They perpetuate the myth of the lone genius.... As much as some scientists may grumble about the new awards, the financial doping that they bring to research and the wisdom of the goals behind them, two things seem clear. First, most researchers would accept such a prize if they were offered one. Second, it is surely a good thing that the money and attention come to science rather than go elsewhere. It is fair to criticize and question the mechanism—that is the culture of research, after all—but it is the prize-givers' money to do with as they please. It is wise to accept such gifts with gratitude and grace.