Celebs Descend On Silicon Valley For Breakthrough Prize Awards

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis (wearing Piaget jewelry)

Photo Credit: Drew Altizer

The red carpet at last night’s 6th annual Breakthrough Prize Awards in Silicon Valley was filled with A-list celebrities. Kerry Washington, Morgan Freeman, Lily Collins, Mila Kunis, and Ashton Kutcher attended the ceremony, which took place in a NASA hanger. Other notables include Miss USA 2017 Kára McCullough, Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, and Mayor of San Francisco Ed Lee. The Breakthrough Prize was founded by a tight knit group of tech elite—Sergey Brin, Anne Wojcicki, Yuri and Julia Milner, Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan.

Photo Credit: Drew Altizer

The event recognize the world’s top scientists and awards each one a prize of $3 million. Categories consist of Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, and Mathematics. There is also a junior challenge category for students whose original video brings to life a scientific or mathematical idea or principle; this student was awarded $400,000. 12 people total were awarded with five life science winners—Joanne Chory, Don W. Cleveland, Kim Nasmyth, Kazutoshi Mori, and Peter Walter—a molecular plant biologist, neurobiologist, molecular biologist, structure biologist, and biochemist, respectively. Five winners were awarded the Physics prizes: Charles L. Bennett (an astrophysicist), Gary Hinshaw (an astrophysicist), Norman Jarosik (a physicist), Lyman Page Jr. (a physicist), and David N. Spiegel (an astrophysicist). This group of men have built detailed maps of the early universe.

Photo Credit: Drew Altizer

In the Mathematics category, two mathematicians, Christopher Hacon and James McKernan, were honored. Most of the tech world—Marissa Mayer, Arianna Huffington, Jeremy Stoppelman —attended the ceremonies. Morgan Freeman hosted the show which was televised live on the National Geographic Channel.