The richest awards in science were handed out Sunday night when the Breakthrough Prize organization presented a total of $21.9 million to physicists, mathematicians, life scientists and one talented high school student. The awards take the form of seven $3 million awards, one of which was split among roughly 1,300 physicists; $500,000 split among eight early-career researchers; and $400,000 to a high school student for creating a video communicating a scientific concept.

The Breakthrough Prizes were founded by Sergey Brin of Google; Anne Wojcicki of 23andme; Jack Ma of Alibaba and his wife, Cathy Zhang; Yuri Milner, an Internet entrepreneur, and his wife, Julia Milner; and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

The awards were given out in an Oscar-style ceremony hosted by the founders and Graydon Carter, the Vanity Fair editor, at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., with entertainment by Pharrell Williams and food by Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and Per Se. Seth MacFarlane was the M.C. for the awards presentation, which also featured boldface names like Russell Crowe and Hilary Swank.

And the scientists were in their Oscar-worthy finest.

It all began when Mr. Milner announced in 2012 that he would hand out $3 million apiece to nine theoretical physicists, in the belief that physicists are equal to rock stars and deserve to be paid and celebrated like them. Over the years, as more sponsors have joined, the prizes have spread to life sciences and mathematics. The winners each year are chosen by a committee of previous winners.

“By challenging conventional thinking and expanding knowledge over the long term, scientists can solve the biggest problems of our time,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in a statement. “The Breakthrough Prize honors achievements in science and math so we can encourage more pioneering research and celebrate scientists as the heroes they truly are.”



Here are this year’s Breakthrough Prize laureates.