Breakthrough Physics Frontiers Prize Winners List (2012 - 2025)

Cumrun Vafa won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics For transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.

Andrew Strominger won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics For transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.

John H. Schwarz won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics For opening new perspectives on quantum gravity and the unification of forces.

Michael B. Green won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics For opening new perspectives on quantum gravity and the unification of forces.

Joseph Polchinski won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics For transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.

Alexander Polyakov won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics For his many discoveries in field theory and string theory, including the conformal bootstrap, magnetic monopoles, instantons, confinement/deconfinement, the quantization of strings in noncritical dimensions, gauge/string duality, and many others. His ideas have dominated the scene in these fields during the past decades.

Laurens Molenkamp won the Breakthrough Physics Frontiers Prize For the theoretical prediction and experimental discovery of topological insulators.

Shoucheng Zhang won the Breakthrough Physics Frontiers Prize For the theoretical prediction and experimental discovery of topological insulators.

Charles Kane won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics For new ideas about topology and symmetry in physics, leading to the prediction of a new class of materials that conduct electricity only on their surface.

Joseph Polchinski won the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics For transformative advances in quantum field theory, string theory, and quantum gravity.