Past IAS Members Announced as 2024 Breakthrough Prize Laureates

Six of the 2024 Breakthrough Prize winners––John Lawrence Cardy, Simon Brendle, Roland Bauerschmidt, Mikhail M. Ivanov, Marko Simonović, and Oliver Philcox––have past affiliations with the Institute's Schools of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Now in its twelfth year, the Breakthrough Prize, often dubbed the “Oscars of Science,” recognizes the world’s top scientists.

Cardy, the recipient of the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, is a former Member (2003, 2004) in the Schools of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Alongside his colleague Alexander Zamolodchikov of Stony Brook University, he was praised for his "profound contributions to statistical physics and quantum field theory, with diverse and far-reaching applications in different branches of physics and mathematics."

Brendle, past Veblen Research Instructor (2002–03) in the School of Mathematics, was awarded the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics for his "transformative contributions to differential geometry," a field which "uses the tools of calculus to study curves, surfaces and spaces." Many of Brendle's results concern the shape of surfaces, as well as manifolds in higher dimensions than those experienced in everyday life.

Bauerschmidt, past Member (2013–14) in the School of Mathematics, received one of three New Horizons in Mathematics Prizes for his "outstanding contributions to probability theory and the development of renormalisation group techniques."

A further trio of winners have past affiliations with the School of Natural Sciences. Ivanov, past NASA Einstein Fellow (2021–23); Simonović, past Member (2014–18); and Philcox, past visiting graduate student, were among the eight winners of the New Horizons in Physics Prize. The scholars were extolled for their "contributions to our understanding of the large-scale structure of the universe and the development of new tools to extract fundamental physics from galaxy surveys."

The 2024 laureates will be celebrated next April at a Breakthrough Prize ceremony held in Los Angeles.