Tech Billionaires Award Top Scientists $25 Million In 'Breakthrough' Prizes (fortune.com) 56
Tonight at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, Morgan Freeman emceed a glamorous, Oscars-style celebration that recognizes scientific achievements with money from tech billionaires.
An anonymous reader writes:
Donors for the Breakthrough Prize included Google's Sergey Brin, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, Alibaba founder Jack Ma and his wife Cathy Zhang, and billionaire venture capitalist Yuri Milner, according to an article in Fortune. TechCrunch has a list of the winners, which included Princeton math professor Jean Bourgain, who won a $3 million prize "for his many contributions to high-dimensional geometry, number theory, and many other theoretical contributions."
Three more physics researchers -- two from Harvard, and one from U.C. Santa Barbara -- will share a $3 million prize recognizing "meaningful advances in string theory, quantum field theory, and quantum gravity." And another $1 million prize honored the leaders of three teams responsible for "collaborative research on gravitational waves and its implications for physics and astronomy," with another $2 million to be shared among the 1,012 members of their research groups.
17-year-old Deanna See from Singapore also won the $250,000 "Breakthrough Junior Challenge" prize -- and more money for her teachers and school -- for her video about antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Google has created a special page where you can read more about some of the other winners.
Three more physics researchers -- two from Harvard, and one from U.C. Santa Barbara -- will share a $3 million prize recognizing "meaningful advances in string theory, quantum field theory, and quantum gravity." And another $1 million prize honored the leaders of three teams responsible for "collaborative research on gravitational waves and its implications for physics and astronomy," with another $2 million to be shared among the 1,012 members of their research groups.
17-year-old Deanna See from Singapore also won the $250,000 "Breakthrough Junior Challenge" prize -- and more money for her teachers and school -- for her video about antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Google has created a special page where you can read more about some of the other winners.
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These are fairly specialized areas.
How about a prize that more people would be able to compete for, let's say, the most amusing post on the Internet?
Very specialized areas.
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Why bother? Go Gauchos!!!
Let's not be so cynical (Score:1)
It is a yearly prize so not a one-time donation.
And this quote from Milner is spot on:
'Milner, who studied physics before making his fortune on various high-profile Internet ventures, said itâ(TM)s a shame that scientists generally receive less recognition from the public than movie stars, musicians, and other celebrities. âoeThis is out of balance quite a bit compared to the influence that fundamental science has on our lives,â '
Re:So Just Some Chump Change (Score:5, Interesting)
to make themselves feel good. Gotcha.
... and you make yourself feel good by criticizing those doing something, while you do nothing.
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I'm not the GP, but speaking as a scientist, these kinds of prizes mean nothing and do nothing. They're given at the end of someone's career, which sounds nice, but you can't count on it, and wouldn't change how anyone lives while getting the work done.
You want to change the world through giving money to scientists, it needs to be in the form of increased funding to projects and more stable positions in the early-career (if not just at the college level). I've lost count of the number of postdocs that I'v
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And what the fuck did YOU do?
Trolling troll.
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What's the NFL?
For literacy (Score:2)
Try reading that again.
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Yeah, combine that sort of tendency to abbreviate with the other fad of calling people by their initials. Was introduced to a guy this weekend before a wedding: "This is JP, he will be MC - oh wait, maybe his 'name' is JC...." Not informative.
Stop with the laziness already. And what's wrong with a shorter term like announcer or host?
Fun fact: Wikipedia says the term "Master of Ceremonies" originated in the Catholic church in the 5th century [wikipedia.org].
Great initiative (Score:2)
Many of these areas don't get much recognition outside of their academic sphere. This seems like a great way to give greater recognition.
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Actually, they move at more like 1% of the SoL [illinois.edu].
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Hmmm, your philosophy seems rather familiar, AC. Fortunately I do not need to reply, as you are incapable of reading letters containing angles. But hey, nobody can measure angles, right? Or is that right angles. I forget.
If they like science so much... (Score:1)
Karma? (Score:2)
The video [youtu.be] (mentioned in the summary) gave(?) me hope for the future. I am glad she was rewarded for it.
In other words, people who hate US citizens (Score:2)
Donors for the Breakthrough Prize included [H1-b supporters], [hell-hole family], [other un-American individuals]....