List of female Breakthrough Prize laureates

The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics is a scientific award, funded by Sergey Brin of Google; internet entrepreneurs Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan of Facebook; entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, one of the founders of the genetics company 23andMe.[1]

Since its establishment, the prize has been awarded to numerous scientists across the globe for their major contributions and discoveries in their respective scientific fields. Laureates receive $3 million each in prize money making it the largest awarded in the sciences.[2] From 2013 to 2024, it has been awarded to sixteen female scientists including two special and one posthumous recognitions, and three of whom were eventually awarded a Nobel Prize for their work: Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier in 2019 for Chemistry, and Katalin Karikó in 2023 for Physiology or Medicine.[citation needed]

Laureates

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Year Field Portrait Citation Laureate Nationality Motivations Institute
2013[1] Life Sciences   Cornelia Bargmann
(born 1961)
  United States "for the genetics of neural circuits and behavior, and synaptic guidepost molecules." Rockefeller University
  Titia de Lange
(born 1955)
  Netherlands
  United States
"for research on telomeres, illuminating how they protect chromosome ends and their role in genome instability in cancer." Rockefeller University
Fundamental Physics
(special)
  Fabiola Gianotti
(born 1960)
  Italy "for their leadership role in the scientific endeavour that led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider."
(awarded with Peter Jenni (ATLAS), Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Singh Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joe Incandela (CMS) and Lyn Evans (LHC))
CERN
2015[3] Life Sciences   Jennifer Doudna
(born 1964)
  United States "for harnessing an ancient mechanism of bacterial immunity into a powerful and general technology for editing genomes, with wide-ranging implications across biology and medicine." University of California, Berkeley
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  Emmanuelle Charpentier
(born 1968)
  France Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research
Umeå University
2016[4] Life Sciences   Helen Hobbs
(born 1952)
  United States "for the discovery of human genetic variants that alter the levels and distribution of cholesterol and other lipids, inspiring new approaches to the prevention of cardiovascular and liver disease." University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
2017[5] Life Sciences   Huda Zoghbi
(born 1954)
  Lebanon
  United States
"for discoveries of the genetic causes and biochemical mechanisms of spinocerebellar ataxia and Rett syndrome, findings that have provided insight into the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and neurological diseases." Baylor College of Medicine
Texas Children's Hospital
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
2018[5] Life Sciences   Joanne Chory
(born 1955)
  United States "for discovering how plants optimize their growth, development, and cellular structure to transform sunlight into chemical energy." Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Fundamental Physics
(special)
  Jocelyn Bell Burnell
(born 1943)
  United Kingdom "for fundamental contributions to the discovery of pulsars, and a lifetime of inspiring leadership in the scientific community." University of Oxford
University of Dundee
2019[5] Life Sciences   Angelika Amon
(1967–2020)
  Austria
  United States
"for determining the consequences of aneuploidy, an abnormal chromosome number resulting from chromosome mis-segregation." Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020[6] Life Sciences   Virginia Man-Yee Lee
(born 1945)
  China
  United States
"for discovering TDP43 protein aggregates in frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and revealing that different forms of alpha-synuclein, in different cell types, underlie Parkinson's disease and Multiple System Atrophy." University of Pennsylvania
Mathematics
(posthumous)
  Maryam Mirzakhani
(1977–2017)
  Iran
  United States
"for revolutionary discoveries in the dynamics and geometry of moduli spaces of Abelian differentials, including the proof of the 'magic wand theorem'."
(awarded jointly with Alex Eskin)
Stanford University
2021[7] Life Sciences   Catherine Dulac
(born 1963)
  France
  United States
"for deconstructing the complex behavior of parenting to the level of cell-types and their wiring, and demonstrating that the neural circuits governing both male and female-specific parenting behaviors are present in both sexes." Harvard University
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
2022[8] Life Sciences   Katalin Karikó
(born 1955)
  Hungary
  United States
"for engineering modified RNA technology which enabled rapid development of effective COVID-19 vaccines."
(awarded jointly with Drew Weissman)
BioNTech
University of Pennsylvania
2024[9] Life Sciences   Sabine Hadida
(born 1966)
  Spain
  United States
"for developing life-transforming drug combinations that repair the defective chloride channel protein in patients with cystic fibrosis."
(awarded jointly with Paul Negulescu and Fredrick Van Goor)
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
  Ellen Sidransky
(born 1955)
  United States "for identifying GBA1 and LRRK2 as risk genes for Parkinson's disease, implicating autophagy and lysosomal biology as critical contributors to the pathogenesis of the disease." National Human Genome Research Institute
National Institutes of Health

References

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  1. ^ a b Rory Carroll (February 20, 2013). "Breakthrough Prize announced by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs". The Guardian. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
  2. ^ "Take that, Alfred". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2024-07-10.
  3. ^ "Breakthrough Prize 2015". breakthroughprize.org. Archived from the original on September 13, 2016. Retrieved November 24, 2014.
  4. ^ "Breakthrough Prize – Breakthrough Prize Awarded $22 Million In Science Prizes". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  5. ^ a b c "Breakthrough Prize – Life Sciences Breakthrough Prize – Laureates". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  6. ^ "Breakthrough Prize – Winners Of The 2020 Breakthrough Prize In Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics And Mathematics Announced". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  7. ^ "Breakthrough Prize – Winners Of The 2021 Breakthrough Prizes In Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics And Mathematics Announced". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  8. ^ "Breakthrough Prize – Winners Of The 2022 Breakthrough Prizes In Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics And Mathematics Announced". breakthroughprize.org. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  9. ^ "Breakthrough Prize announces 2024 laureates in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, and Mathematics". breakthroughprize.org. September 14, 2023. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
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