First awarded in 2012 and backed by founders including Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg, the Breakthrough Prize gives $3 million per prize and is known as the Oscars of Science
Baxter with Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman astronaut, at the Ninth Breakthrough Prize Ceremony in Los Angeles. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Raven Baxter
Dr. Raven Baxter attended the Ninth Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on April 15, 2023, as an invited guest. The ceremony took place on the open-air roof of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, hosted by James Corden.
Host James Corden on the rooftop stage of the Academy Museum. Baxter is not pictured. Image: Breakthrough Prize video
It was the first staged ceremony since 2019, after the COVID-19 pandemic halted in-person events. It honored laureates from 2021, 2022 and 2023. The ceremony also came to Hollywood for the first time, the Hollywood Reporter noted, and awarded $15.75 million.
"Tonight we celebrate science in the home of cinema," co-founder Yuri Milner told the audience.
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for the modified RNA technology behind COVID-19 vaccines. The room gave them a long standing ovation. Weissman said the award would let him pursue programs that help low-income countries build facilities to make their own treatments. "I believe this work can help address the unequal access to new medicines in the world today," he said.
Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to become an astronaut, presented the Fundamental Physics prize with actor Kristen Bell. "When I was an astronaut looking out of the shuttle window, I felt connected to this universe around me," Jemison said. The prize went to Charles H. Bennett, Gilles Brassard, David Deutsch and Peter Shor for foundational work in quantum information.
Three teenage winners of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, a science video contest for high school students, were also recognized. Noor Haideri, Amber Kwok and Maryam Tsegaye took the stage together. "I think learning and sharing knowledge and science is fun and spreads joy too," one of the winners said.
will.i.am and Estelle closed the show. will.i.am told the room that future winners "are gonna come from communities, inner city kids that study FIRST Robotics." That January, the National Science Foundation reported that Black workers made up 9% of the STEM workforce in 2021.
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, site of the 2023 ceremony. Baxter is not pictured. Image: Breakthrough Prize video
The Breakthrough Prize was first awarded in 2012. Its founders include Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Anne Wojcicki. Each prize is $3 million, in life sciences, fundamental physics and mathematics.
Baxter is a molecular biologist and science communicator, known online as Dr. Raven the Science Maven. She earned her Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo.
The Breakthrough Prize posted the full ceremony on its YouTube channel. The laureates honored that night are listed in its March 30, 2023 release.
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Dr. Raven Baxter reports from BiotechTV's first U.S. Science Summit in Kendall Square, where about 20 science creators joined biotech leaders on July 21, 2026.
