Russian billionaire and social media investor Yury Milner began offering multimillion-dollar prizes for achievements in fundamental physics, a move that could turn him into a role model for the rich in Russia.
Milner's newly minted $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize became the world's most lucrative academic award, trumping the $1.2 million Nobel Prize and the $1.7 million Templeton Prize for science and spirituality.
For Milner, however, the size of the award is secondary to recognition bestowed on theoretical scientific discoveries. While the Nobel Prize in science is awarded only for incontestable scientific breakthroughs, Milner believes that discoveries in modern physics should be rewarded even if they have not been proven. "I am convinced that the best scientists must earn no less than, for example, stock traders," Milner said.
The Russian billionaire inaugurated his new prize program for fundamental physics on Tuesday with a $3 million award to each of the nine of the world's best-known theorists. Milner, 50, a trained physicist, chose the first nine honorees himself, but future selection will be entrusted to a committee that will include the first nine laureates.
Tuesday’s recipients included three Russian scientists: Alexei Kitaev from the California Institute of Technology, who focuses on quantum computing, mathematician Maxim Kontsevich of France’s Institute for Advanced Research, and Stanford's Andrei Linde, who developed the theory of cosmic inflation.
In addition to the three Russians, the recipients include MIT's Alan Guth and four string theorists of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton: Nima Arkani-Hamed, Juan Maldacena, Nathan Seiberg, Edward Witten and Indian string theorist Ashoke Sen.
The $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize is to be awarded annually by the nonprofit Milner Foundation to honor "transformative advances in the field." The $3 million prize may also be given at any time outside the formal nomination process "in exceptional cases," the foundation said in a statement on Tuesday.
Promising junior researchers will be eligible for a different $100,000 annual award, known as the New Horizons in Physics Prize.
Milner, who began his business career as a banking specialist, amassed his fortune through a string of Internet-related investments, including stakes in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon. This year, Forbes estimated his net worth at $1 billion.
"I hope the new prize will bring the greatest minds working in the field of fundamental physics their long overdue recognition, and if this helps to encourage young people to be inspired by science, I will be deeply gratified," Milner said.
