The Breakthrough Prize Foundation has announced the winners of the 2024 Breakthrough Prizes in life sciences, fundamental physics, and mathematics.

In its 12th year, the foundation awarded a total of $15.75 million to laureates and early-career scientists in support of groundbreaking discoveries. Each of the five main Breakthrough Prizes includes a $3 million award.

Recipients in the life sciences category include Carl June and Michel Sadelain in support of their work on genetically engineered T cells with synthetic receptors—chimeric antigen receptors (CARs)—to instruct T cells to recognize the cancer cells of individual patients; Sabine Hadida, Paul Negulescu, and Fredrick Van Goor, who invented the first effective medicines to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis; and Thomas Gasser, Ellen Sidransky, and Andrew Singleton, who discovered the most common genetic causes of Parkinson’s Disease. The Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics went to John Cardy and Alexander Zamolodchikov in recognition of their quantum field theories, which describe particle physics as well as emergent phenomena from magnetism and superconducting materials to the information content of black holes, which have also become a rich field of study in mathematics. The Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics went to Simon Brendle for his contribution to differential geometry.

In addition, the foundation awarded six New Horizons Prizes of $100,000 each to 12 early-career scientists and mathematicians who have already made a substantial impact on their fields, and three Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes of $50,000 each to early-career women mathematicians.

The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Anne Wojcicki, and Yuri and Julia Milner, and have been sponsored by the personal foundations established by the founders as well as Ma Huateng and Jack Ma.

“The work of these laureates is very impressive—whether it’s exploring abstract ideas or unraveling the causes of human diseases and producing effective treatments that impact millions of lives,” said Chan and Zuckerberg. 

(Photo credit: Breakthrough Prize)