On the evening of Saturday, April 6, 2025, the eleventh annual Breakthrough Prize Awards lit up Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, fusing red carpet glamor with groundbreaking science. Widely known as “the Oscars of Science,” the black-tie gala honored some of the world’s most influential scientists with $18.75 million in prizes, drawing a crowd that included A-list entertainers, global tech leaders, and research pioneers.
Held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica and hosted by James Corden, the black-tie event brought together the upper echelons of Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and the scientific community. Celebrity presenters and attendees included Edward Norton, Zoe Saldaña, Gal Gadot, Vin Diesel, Jodie Foster, Ke Huy Quan, Salma Hayek Pinault, Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera, and Seth Rogen, with global business leaders like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Sam Altman, and Tony Xu in attendance. Grammy-winning artists Katy Perry and Sia performed during the ceremony, while Boney M.’s Liz Mitchell headlined the afterparty.
Before the show began, internet personality and philanthropist MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) spent more time with press than any other celebrity on the carpet—a rare and appreciated gesture in an otherwise whirlwind media line. Fresh off the news of his engagement to Thea Booysen, Donaldson spoke briefly with Awards Focus about his interest in accelerating cures for chronic conditions like Crohn’s disease, which he has long lived with.
“Oh yeah, 100%,” Donaldson said. “I’m kind of surprised. Millions of Americans have it and they don’t have more progress on it. I just work all day and I’m kind of waiting for someone to solve the problem so I don’t have Crohn’s anymore.”
That spirit—personal, urgent, and solutions-driven—defined the evening.
Among this year’s most lauded honorees were David R. Liu, who developed DNA-editing technologies that saved a leukemia patient’s life; Stephen L. Hauser and Alberto Ascherio, whose research transformed the world’s understanding of multiple sclerosis; and a collective of over 13,000 scientists from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, receiving the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for collaborative discoveries probing the deepest laws of the universe.
“This is humanity’s fundamental mission,” said Breakthrough Prize co-founder Yuri Milner, joined onstage by Jeff Bezos to present the physics prize.
The first Life Sciences award, presented by Lauren Sánchez and Will.i.am, went to Daniel J. Drucker, Jens Juul Holst, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, and Svetlana Mojsov for their foundational work on GLP-1, the basis for medications now dramatically improving lives for those with diabetes and obesity. “Let’s continue to push the boundaries of science for a healthier future,” Knudsen urged.
Mark Zuckerberg, sharing the stage with Vin Diesel, introduced the MS research team, calling their findings “revolutionary.” Jodie Foster and Lily Collins presented Liu’s award, which was accompanied by an emotional appearance from Alyssa Tapley, a teenager whose terminal leukemia was cured thanks to Liu’s gene-editing technology.
“Breakthroughs with impact begin with compassion,” Liu said, visibly moved.
Dennis Gaitsgory received the Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics and shared a message for young scholars: “You don’t have to walk this path alone.” The Maryam Mirzakhani New Frontiers Prize was awarded to Si Ying Lee, Rajula Srivastava, and Ewin Tang for early-career achievements in mathematics.
The ceremony also included a standing ovation for climate scientist Susan Solomon, whose research helped expose the ozone hole and contributed to international environmental action. Gal Gadot honored the late Dr. George Berci, a Holocaust survivor whose surgical innovations transformed modern medicine.
Jasmine Eyal, this year’s winner of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, earned her spot on stage with a viral science video inspired by her grandmother. “We should celebrate the brilliant scientists here today,” Eyal said, “for the young minds they’ll inspire.”
With more than $326 million awarded since its inception, the Breakthrough Prize has quietly become one of the most powerful engines for celebrating human discovery—a show of belief not just in where science is today, but in where it can take us.
Some of the night’s most emotional moments weren’t delivered by presenters, but by the honorees themselves—people whose work is already saving lives, reversing disease, and challenging the belief that our DNA defines our destiny. David Liu choked up listening to a young girl describe how his research cured her cancer. Daniel Drucker and his team gave hope to millions facing diabetes and obesity. Susan Solomon stood in a room filled with billionaires and movie stars, and still earned the loudest applause—for helping to save the planet.
The evening concluded with a final performance by Sia and a return to the stage by all 17 winners, capping the ceremony with a sense of unity and quiet urgency. This wasn’t just another gala in Los Angeles—it was a declaration that progress deserves a spotlight too.
Only in Hollywood could a night end with magic tricks, pop ballads, and a dog with narcolepsy stealing the show—but the lasting impact belongs to the minds changing medicine and rewriting what’s possible.
