Hollywood & Tech Come Together At Breakthrough Prize Awards

Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan attend 7th Annual Brea

Photo Credit: Drew Altizer

Last night some of Hollywood’s brightest stars joined the tech glitterati at the seventh annual Breakthrough Prize Awards. Known in Silicon Valley as the ‘Oscars of Science,’ the ceremony recognizes the world’s top scientists. Seven tech titans sponsored the event: Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Ma Huateng, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki and over $22 million was awarded for discoveries in new kinds of electronic material, super-resolution imaging, and infant death research.

Photo Credit: Drew Altizer

Actor Peirce Bronson hosted the award ceremony which took place in Mountain View’s NASA Ames Research Center. The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences was awarded to C. Frank Bennett and Adrian R. Kraine, Angelika Amon, Xiaowei Zhuang, and Zhijian “James” Chen. The Fundamental Physics category award winners were Charles Kane and Eugene Mele. Vincent Lafforgue won the Mathematics prize, and Jocelyn Bell Burnell was given a special prize in fundamental physics.

Photo Credit: Drew Altizer

New Horizons winners, who were commemorated for early-career achievements, were Brian Metzger, Rana Adhikari, Lisa Barsotti, and Matthew Evans, Daniel Harlow, Daniel L. Jafferis and Aron Wall (all in physics); and Chenyang Xu, Karim Adiprasito and June Huh, Kaisa Matomäki and Maksym Radziwill (all in mathematics).

Photo Credit: Drew Altizer

The celebration of science has never been more popular as evidenced by the slew of celebrities who attended the event. Presenters included Orlando Bloom, Ron Howard, Julianne Moore, Thandie Newton, and Lupita Nyong’o. Four-time Grammy Award winner Lionel Richie performed as did China’s top-selling female artist G.E.M.

Photo Credit: Drew Altizer

Other notables who donned their finest and came out for the ceremony include Marissa Mayer and Zach Bogue, Karolina Kurkova, Lily Collins, Eddie Redmayne, and Rachel McAdams. The show was broadcast live on the National Geographic Channel.