MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – The Breakthrough Awards Sunday night was celebrated by all kinds of celebrities joining together in one event in Mountain View from Hollywood stars to the big names in science and Silicon Valley.
The event was first founded by several tech titans such as Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Anne Wojcicki, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Sergey Brin. It is a night that would honor the most groundbreaking, innovative, as well as transformative study and research. It would be in various fields from science to medicine to mathematics.
But unlike most notable awards, it doesn’t involve any golden statue given to the winners. Instead, they will take home a total of 22 million dollars in cash awards. There are seven Breakthrough awards in total with each of them worth 3 million dollars.
There are also other awards given. Three New Horizons in Physics are given to three best early-career physicists which are worth 100,000 dollars each. There are also the New Horizons in Mathematics awarded to four of the best early-career mathematicians that are worth 300,000 dollars each.
In addition to the technology moguls who graced the event, organizers also brought some of the top performers in the entertainment industry. The host of the night was Morgan Freeman, an Academy Award-winning actor. Presenters of the Breakthrough awards were also star-studded from Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Mayim Bialik, and Kerry Washington.
The special musical performance was also thought-through to add glitter to the event with the hip-hop artist Whiz Khalifa teaming up with Nana Ou-Yang.
Washington said in an interview that she considers being part of the event as something special. She added that in Hollywood, they celebrate artists like herself, but that evening, the spotlight shifted its focus to the people who are doing some important and significant works in the sciences.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, the entire evening has been considered as a source of more inspiration. He pertained to the winners as the inspiration and also stated that the world needs them and even if it doesn’t always feel like there is progress, there are steady works in building a better future for all.
The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for 2018 was awarded to Don W. Cleveland of Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of California and Joanne Chory of Hughes Medical Institute and Salk Institute for Biological Studies. It also includes Kazutoshi Mori of Kyoto University, Peter Walter of the University of California, and Kim Nasmyth of the University of Oxford.
For the Breakthrough Awards for Mathematics, it was given to two people, namely, James McKernan of the University of California and Christopher Hacon of the University of Utah.
The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for 2018 was also awarded to five people. It includes David N. Spergel of Princeton University, Gary Hinshaw of the University of British Columbia, and Lyman Page Jr. from Princeton University. They were also joined by Norman Jarosik of Princeton University and Charles L. Bennet of Johns Hopkins University.
While the Breakthrough awards was star-studded, may it be from Hollywood or the big names in technology, the main stars were the people who extended their efforts and knowledge for the better tomorrow.
