The fusion of scientific brilliance and Hollywood glamour created an unforgettable spectacle at this year’s Breakthrough Prize ceremony, often called the “Oscars of Science.” Held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on April 5, 2025, the event brought together the world’s leading researchers with A-list celebrities for a celebration that showcased how scientific achievement deserves the same cultural spotlight as artistic or athletic excellence.
Star-Studded Celebration of Scientific Achievement
The red carpet blazed with familiar faces from both entertainment and science worlds. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore, and Kate Hudson mingled with laureates whose work is transforming our understanding of life, physics, and mathematics. Grammy Award-winning artist Katy Perry, just days away from joining Blue Origin’s historic all-female space mission, performed for the assembled luminaries.
“A lot of the great discoveries were made from thinking about the impossible,” reflected eight-time Oscar nominee Glenn Close, whose appreciation for science began with her surgeon father. “George Lucas once said, ‘Anything that can be imagined is possible,’ and we’re in the room with people who have proven that.”
The ceremony, now in its 11th year, awarded six main prizes of $3 million each across the fields of Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, and Mathematics. The event has now distributed more than $326 million in recognition of scientific excellence throughout its history.
2025's Trailblazing Laureates
This year’s prize winners exemplified how fundamental research leads to real-world impacts. In Life Sciences, five researchers—Daniel J. Drucker, Joel Habener, Jens Juul Holst, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, and Svetlana Mojsov—were recognized for their complementary contributions leading to GLP-1 medicines now transforming the treatment of diabetes and obesity.
Another Life Sciences prize went to Stephen L. Hauser and Alberto Ascherio for revolutionizing the understanding and treatment of multiple sclerosis, while David R. Liu was honored for developing gene-editing technologies that have shown life-saving potential in clinical trials.
The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics made history by recognizing over 13,000 researchers from more than 70 countries representing four experimental collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. In Mathematics, Dennis Gaitsgory won for his central role in proving the geometric Langlands conjecture—a monumental advance with deep implications for multiple mathematical fields.
The Vision Behind the Ceremony
Co-founded by Yuri Milner alongside Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, and Anne Wojcicki, the Breakthrough Prize represents a bold reimagining of how scientific achievement is recognized. The vision aligns perfectly with Milner’s Eureka Manifesto, which outlines a five-step plan for advancing humanity’s understanding of ourselves and our place in the cosmos.
“The questions these laureates are asking are among the deepest questions there are—about the workings of life, the nature of the Universe and the abstract landscapes of mathematics,” Milner noted. “It’s inspiring to see scientists seeking and finding answers to these questions.”
This elevation of scientists as cultural heroes connects directly with the broader ecosystem of Milner’s initiatives, including the Breakthrough Initiatives that search for life beyond Earth and the Breakthrough Junior Challenge that inspires the next generation of scientific thinkers through creative video competitions.
Fostering the Next Generation
Beyond the main prizes, the ceremony recognized emerging talent through six $100,000 New Horizons Prizes for early-career physicists and mathematicians, along with three $50,000 Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes for outstanding women mathematicians who recently completed their PhDs.
These awards create a pipeline of support for scientific talent at different career stages, complementing the educational mission of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge and reflecting the forward-looking approach found across all of Milner’s scientific philanthropy.
Will.i.am captured the ceremony’s inspirational potential perfectly: “This shouldn’t be looked at as like geek work or nerd work. This should be looked at as elegance, excellence, the coolest ish on Earth. Kids from the inner city should aim to be on that stage.”
A Cultural Milestone with Growing Influence
After eleven years, the Breakthrough Prize ceremony has established itself as more than just an annual event—it has become a cultural phenomenon with growing influence on how science is perceived and valued. The presence of figures like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg alongside Hollywood stars creates powerful visual associations between scientific achievement and cultural significance.
The ceremony’s format—with celebrity presenters, musical performances, and professional production values—borrows the visual language of entertainment awards to make cutting-edge research accessible to general audiences. This approach, combined with the significant monetary awards, sends a clear message: scientific achievement deserves our highest recognition and deepest appreciation.
Through this unique fusion of glamour and genius, the Breakthrough Prize ceremony continues to transform how society celebrates intellectual achievement, creating a world where today’s scientists become tomorrow’s cultural icons—and inspiring a future generation to join humanity’s greatest adventure: the quest to understand our universe and our place within it.