SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The public nomination period for the 2019 Breakthrough Prizes in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics is now open. Prizes will be awarded in fall 2018, during a live, globally televised gala awards ceremony in Silicon Valley.
Nominations can be submitted online today through April 30, 2018. While self-nominations are prohibited, anyone may nominate another person. The nomination form and rules are available at www.breakthroughprize.org.
For the seventh year, the Breakthrough Prize, recognized as the world's largest science prize, will honor top scientists, handing out up to four prizes in Life Sciences, one in Fundamental Physics and one in Mathematics. Each prize comes with a $3 million award.
In addition, up to six New Horizons Prizes, each for $100,000, will be presented to promising early-career researchers in the fields of Physics and Mathematics.
The Breakthrough Prize, dubbed 'The Oscars of Science,' hosts a gala awards ceremony to celebrate the laureates' achievements and to foster broad popular support for scientific endeavors and inspire the next generation of scientists. As part of the schedule, the prizewinners also engage in a program of lectures and discussions at a daylong symposium the day after the ceremony.
For the second year, the Breakthrough Prize will partner with two prestigious institutions - the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities (ALLEA) and ResearchGate - to directly engage with researchers and the science community.
ALLEA will seek to increase awareness of the opportunity to nominate great scientists and mathematicians on its website and other communication channels. ALLEA brings together 59 academies in more than 40 countries, with members leading scholarly enquiry across all fields of the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities.
ResearchGate will reach out to its multidisciplinary network of 12 million verified scientists to raise their awareness of nominations. On the ResearchGate network, scientists from 193 countries and all fields of science and mathematics connect and share their research – current and past. ResearchGate members will be encouraged to nominate their peers for the 2019 prizes in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences, and Mathematics.
The Breakthrough Prizes are sponsored by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Pony Ma, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. Selection Committees are composed of previous Breakthrough Prize laureates, who choose the winners from the list of candidates generated during the nomination period.
Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
One 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics ($3 million) will recognize an individual(s) who has made profound contributions to human knowledge. It is open to all physicists – theoretical, mathematical and experimental – working on the deepest mysteries of the Universe. The prize can be shared among any number of scientists. Nominations are also open for the New Horizons in Physics Prize, which will include up to three $100,000 awards for junior researchers who have already produced important work in their fields.
The Selection Committee for the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics includes: Nima Arkani-Hamed, Charles L. Bennett, Lyn Evans, Michael B. Green, Alan Guth, Stephen Hawking, Joseph Incandela, Takaaki Kajita, Alexei Kitaev, Maxim Kontsevich, Andrei Linde, Arthur McDonald, Juan Maldacena, Lyman Page, Saul Perlmutter, Joseph Polchinski, Alexander Polyakov, Adam Riess, John H. Schwarz, Nathan Seiberg, Ashoke Sen, David N. Spergel, Andrew Strominger, Kip S. Thorne, Cumrun Vafa, Yifang Wang, Rainer Weiss and Edward Witten.
Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
Up to four 2019 Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences ($3 million each) will be awarded to individuals who have made transformative advances in understanding living systems and extending human life.
The Selection Committee for the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences includes: C. David Allis, James P. Allison, Victor Ambros, Cornelia I. Bargmann, Alim Louis Benabid, David Botstein, Edward S. Boyden, Lewis C. Cantley, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Joanne Chory, Don W. Cleveland, Hans Clevers, Karl Deisseroth, Titia de Lange, Mahlon R. DeLong, Jennifer A. Doudna, Stephen J. Elledge, Napoleone Ferrara, Michael N. Hall, John Hardy, Helen Hobbs, Eric S. Lander, Robert Langer, Richard P. Lifton, Kazutoshi Mori, Kim Nasmyth, Harry F. Noller, Roeland Nusse, Yoshinori Ohsumi, Svante Pääbo, Gary Ruvkun, Charles L. Sawyers, Alexander Varshavsky, Bert Vogelstein, Peter Walter, Robert A. Weinberg, Shinya Yamanaka and Huda Zoghbi.
Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics
One 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics ($3 million) will be awarded to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of mathematics. In addition, up to three $100,000 New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes will be presented to early career mathematicians who have already produced important work in their fields.
The Selection Committee for the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics includes: Ian Agol, Jean Bourgain, Simon Donaldson, Maxim Kontsevich, Christopher Hacon, Jacob Lurie, James McKernana, Terence Tao and Richard Taylor.
Information on the Breakthrough Prizes is available at www.breakthroughprize.org.
About ALLEA
ALLEA (All European Academies) is the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities. It was founded in 1994 and brings together almost 60 Academies of Sciences and Learned Societies from over 40 countries in the Council of Europe region. ALLEA is financed by annual dues from its member academies and remains fully independent from political, religious, commercial or ideological interests.
Member Academies operate as learned societies, think tanks, or research performing organisations. They are self-governing communities of leaders of scholarly enquiry across all fields of the natural sciences, the social sciences and the humanities. ALLEA therefore provides access to an unparalleled human resource of intellectual excellence, experience and expertise. Furthermore, its integrative membership structure comprises Academies from both EU and non–EU member states in Europe.
ALLEA seeks to contribute to improving the framework conditions under which science and scholarship can excel. Jointly with its Member Academies, ALLEA is in a position to address the full range of structural and policy issues facing Europe in science, research and innovation. In doing so, it is guided by a common understanding of Europe, bound together by historical, social and political factors as well as for scientific and economic reasons.
About ResearchGate
ResearchGate was founded in 2008 by the physicians Dr. Ijad Madisch and Dr. Sören Hofmayer, along with computer specialist Horst Fickenscher. The company's mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all. 12 million researchers have made more than 140 million connections on the network, and share over half a million updates about their research daily. ResearchGate has completed four rounds of financing from Benchmark, Founders Fund, Bill Gates, Tenaya Capital, Wellcome Trust, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, and Four Rivers Group.
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