Nine Winners of New Annual US$3 Million Fundamental Physics Prize Announced. (August 1, 2012)

In an announcement yesterday the world’s most successful investor in social media, the Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, has personally chosen nine practitioners of theoretical physics to receive the inaugural Fundamental Physics Prizes. Each has received $3 million.

The nine inaugural recipients:

• Nima Arkani-Hamed of Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey;

• Alan Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge;

• Alexei Kitaev of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena;

• Maxim Kontsevich of the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies in Bures-sur-Yvette, France;

• Andrei Linde of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California;

• Juan Maldacena of IAS; Nathan Seiberg of IAS;

• Ashoke Sen of the Harish-Chandra Research Institute in Allahabad, India and

• Edward Witten of IAS.

On the prize website Mr Milner wrote: "I am delighted to announce the launch of the Fundamental Physics Prize and welcome its first recipients. I hope the new prize will bring long overdue recognition to the greatest minds working in the field of fundamental physics, and if this helps encourage young people to be inspired by science, I will be deeply gratified". And he told Nature: "The intention was to say that science is as important as a shares rating on Wall Street."

Apart from the amount awarded to each individual, Mr Milner has chosen to reward outstanding originality of concept. For example six of the recipients are rewarded for their contributions to string theory, while Alan Guth is recognised for his contribution of the theory of the inflationary universe which is postulated to have lasted from 10⁻³⁶ seconds after the Big Bang to sometime between 10⁻³³ and 10⁻³² seconds.

In announcing the prize the website notes:

Two categories of prizes will be awarded for past achievements in the field of fundamental physics, with the aim of providing the recipients with more freedom and opportunity to pursue even greater future accomplishments.

The Fundamental Physics Prize recognizes transformative advances in the field, while the

New Horizons in Physics Prizes are targeted at promising junior researchers.

All prize recipients are invited to present public talks targeted at a broad audience, on subjects ranging from the basics of modern physics to cutting-edge research. These lectures, together with supporting materials, will be made available to the public, allowing them to keep abreast of the latest developments in fundamental physics, guided by contemporary masters of the field.

In addition all of the nine recipients "have agreed to serve on the Selection Committee of the Foundation to select recipients of future prizes", while  Nobel Physics Laureate, Steven Weinberg, has agreed to join its Board of Directors.

Not surprisingly a number of the nominations chosen by Mr Milner have drawn criticism from those strongly opposing concepts considered to be untestable and he admits that "any nine names I would have chosen would not be a perfect set" but as the awarding will be done by an expanding set of prize-winners which will gain competence.

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Yuri Milner studied at Moscow State University and the Russian Academy of Sciences during the 1980s and early 1990s. According to Nature "his various investment funds are worth an estimated $US12 billion, and his private worth is set at US$1 billion.