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(Image Source: VentureBeat)
BY KERRY LEARY ANCHOR ZACH TOOMBS
Looking for a spare $3 million or so to work on a project in field of science? Well, you’re
in luck... three Silicon Valley entrepenuers have established the most lucrative annual
prize in the history of SCIENCE. Yes, that’s right. The new Breakthrough Science award
is, quote, “the world’s richest academic prize for medicine and biology.”
Where is all of this money coming from? It’s simple addition... add one Google co-founder--
Sergey Brin, one Russian investor and entrepreneur and billionaire... Yuri Milner... And of
course, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg... You get.. well, you get three generous billionaires
that want to help change the world.
So, how does this prize compare to, say, the Nobel? The Economist found out.
“Besides being nearly three times more generous than the Nobels, the new prizes can be shared
by any number of people, not just three as is the case for the venerable Swedish awards
… The life sciences are a much broader category than fundamental physics is. So the initiators
of the Breakthrough Prize invite others to use their platform to found their own awards.”
The first 11 recipients of the Breakthrough Prize each won $3 million to further expand
research in their specific fields... and we’ll be honest when we say we can’t pronounce
half of the vocabulary used to describe what research the money is funding. The first round
of winners were announced Wednesday.
The Guardian reports: “[The] award [is] intended to inject excitement into the sometimes
lonely, underfunded quests to understand and combat cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's disease
and other maladies.”
VentureBeat reports each of the 11 recipients will serve on a selection committee to find
the next winners. Nominations will be taken online and there is no age restriction and
previous winners can win again.
Zuckerberg says he hopes the new prize gives the world an opportunity for a better future.
The three founding sponsors have agreed to provide annual prizes for an unspecified length
of time.