Oscars Of Science: Breakthrough Awards Hands Out $21m To Transform Physicists Into Rockstars

In Hollywood this week, the talk was all about the Golden Globe nominations, but several hundred miles to the north, Silicon Valley’s biggest names were enjoying a new kind of awards ceremony – and they invited one of the film industry’s favourite sons to host it. On Thursday evening Kevin Spacey, fresh from his Best Actor nod for his performance in the Netflix drama series House of Cards, presented the second annual Breakthrough Prizes, an annual event to celebrate and reward scientists which is backed by some of the biggest names in the tech industry. The prizes are intended to hail unsung scientists and their work, but also to build enthusiasm among young people about science as a potential career – not least by borrowing some of the glamour of showbiz. Several stars of film and television walked the red carpet at the spectacular awards venue: a vast former airship hangar at Nasa’s Ames Research Centre in Mountain View, mere minutes from Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters.

Among the attendees were actors Spacey, Glenn Close, Rob Lowe, Michael C Hall and Anna Kendrick, the comedian and talk-show host Conan O’Brien, and Dana Brunetti, the producer of The Social Network. They were joined by tech celebrities such as Google’s Eric Schmidt, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales.

The guests enjoyed a live musical performance by Lana Del Rey, and food prepared by chefs from legendary California restaurant The French Laundry. The evening was co-hosted by Vanity Fair magazine and produced by Don Mischer, who has previously produced or directed three Academy Awards ceremonies, as well as Super Bowl halftime shows, Olympics opening ceremonies and President Obama’s inauguration celebration in 2009. Thursday’s event will be broadcast on the Science Channel in January.