Star powered science

Imperial College’s very own André Arroja Neves has won the New Horizons in Mathematics Award at the Breakthrough Prizes, which was held at the NASA Ames Research Centre in Silicon Valley on November 9th. The professor in the Department of Pure Mathematics won the prize, along with Codá Marques, for having solved the 50-year old Willmore Conjecture in 2012.

The Breakthrough Awards, now in their third year, are sponsored by some of society’s modern powerhouse tech giants, who have all made significant breakthroughs of their own. This includes the co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki, and her now ex-husband, the Google co-founder Sergey Chin – in addition to DST founder Yuri Milner and his wife Julia, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, and AliBaba founder Jack Ma and his wife Cathy Zhang.

The committee handed out $21.9 million in prizes for significant innovations in three categories

The committee handed out $21.9 million in prizes for significant achievements and innovations in three categories: Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences, and Mathematics. Each category also has a sub-category called New Horizons, handed to junior researchers like Prof. Neves who are ahead of the game in producing important work in their field.

The awards were hosted by Seth MacFarlane, the well-known creator of Family Guy. A star-studded Hollywood line-up gave away the prizes and performed, including Pharrell Williams, Russell Crowe, Hilary Swank, and Lily Collins. Winners ranged from a 1300 scientist-deep team studying neutrinos (including team leaders who won the Nobel Prize in Physics for this research), to an MIT professor who developed the field of optogenetics – using light signals to treat Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders.

The prize money is intended to provide funding for research that is proving to be successful. “Science is racing forward to meet the demands of the world’s most critical issues, and we have a duty to support it”, says Jack Ma. However, using celebrity power and live broadcasting on Fox News, the award ceremony also shines a spotlight on the grand achievements of scientists, for people who would otherwise never hear about them. This research is fundamentally altering the way we see and interact with the world, but is often considered boring, stuffy, or impossible to understand. Casting it in this ‘sizzling’ and dynamic light attracts attention, funding, and respect.

Adorning research with Hollywood sparkle also encourages a generation of young people to look to STEM for an exciting, illustrious, and potentially world-changing career. To this end, there is a Breakthrough Junior Challenge Award for high school students, this year won by a student from Ohio for a dynamic video on understanding special relativity.

As the Breakthrough Prize website notes, “Great scientists enrich us all. They enable technologies that ease our lives, but they also show us what’s beyond our horizons.” Will you be the next Imperial College scientist to win the Breakthrough Prize and show us what’s over the next horizon? Prof. Neves’ win has certainly shown us that it’s more than possible.