BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE ANNOUNCES 2026 LAUREATES

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation has announced the winners of the 2026 Breakthrough Prizes, recognizing scientists for outstanding discoveries in life sciences, fundamental physics, and mathematics. Six $3 million prizes were awarded for work on gene therapies for inherited blindness, sickle cell disease, and beta-thalassemia, as well as the discovery of a key genetic cause of ALS and frontotemporal dementia. The prizes also honored advances in the precision measurement of the muon's magnetic moment and the mathematics of waves and nonlinear systems. In addition to the main prizes, 15 early-career physicists and mathematicians were recognized with $100,000 New Horizons Prizes, and three women mathematicians received $50,000 Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prizes. The Breakthrough Prizes, now in their 14th year, have conferred over $340 million in prize money since their inception. The ceremony took place in Los Angeles, celebrating the work of these scientists and their contributions to human knowledge.