Tech Leaders Create $3 Million Award

SAN FRANCISCO—Three Silicon Valley leaders are the latest to join a movement among business titans to offer science prizes.

Russian tech investor Yuri Milner joined with Facebook Inc. FB -1.64% Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Google Inc. GOOG -1.82% co-founder Sergey Brin to create a $3 million annual prize for health-science research.

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Russian tech investor Yuri Milner said he has joined with Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin to create a new $3 million prize for health-science research. Geoffrey Fowler reports on The News Hub. Photo: AP.

The founders of the Breakthrough Prize, designed to help advance research and celebrate scientists, launched a foundation Wednesday in San Francisco, handing out awards to 11 scientists, including Rockefeller University's Cornelia I. Bargmann for her study of the genetics of neural circuits and Eric S. Lander of the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT for discovering general principles for identifying human disease genes.

"There is a significant deficit in our social system, globally, that scientists are underappreciated as people who are making significant contributions to our everyday survival," said Mr. Milner, an early Facebook investor.

The Breakthrough Prize, which comes with a cash grant of $3 million per award, is one of the most lucrative annual science prizes. Winners of the Nobel Prize are paid eight million Swedish kronor, or $1.27 million.

Prizes are a booming industry, with dozens of new ones launched by companies, billionaires and foundations over the last 15 years, but their impact on research is a topic of debate, with philanthropists and scholars disagreeing about whether they are a good way to produce better and more research.

"It is not enough money to be an incentivizer—this is not the way that people plan their careers," said James English, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has written about the economy of prizes. When Alfred Nobel set up his awards, said Mr. English, he donated a much larger sum for the era. If the tech-titan prize was worth a billion dollars, he said, "then that is going to change the field."

To establish the prize, Mr. Milner said he reached out to Messrs. Zuckerberg and Brin several months ago about contributing. Mr. Milner declined to say how much money the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation has in its coffers, or how much each of its sponsors contributed or for how long. The foundation plans to hand out at least five of the prizes annually.

From their earliest conversations, "everybody agreed that motivating young scientists to stay in science, and not necessarily switch to areas that are better monetized, is one of the top priorities," Mr. Milner said.

Mr. Brin joined in contributing to the prize with his wife Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder of DNA science company 23andMe Inc., and Mr. Zuckerberg did so with his wife Priscilla Chan, who has studied medicine.

"I think that our society needs more heroes who are scientists, researchers and engineers," said Mr. Zuckerberg at the launch event.

In a statement, Mr. Brin said: "Curing a disease should be worth more than a touchdown."

Last year, Mr. Milner also gave out his own self-funded $3 million prizes for research into fundamental physics.

Mr. Milner said he hopes to attract other sponsors and grow into an "open platform" to support more prizes. "Other sponsors can come in and establish their own prizes for different diseases in order to increase the impact," he said.

Russian tech investor Yuri Milner joined with Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin to create a $3 million annual prize for health-science research.

The founders of the Breakthrough Prize, designed to help advance research and celebrate scientists, launched a foundation Wednesday in San Francisco, handing out awards to 11 scientists, including Rockefeller University's Cornelia I. Bargmann for her study of the genetics of neural circuits and Eric S. Lander of the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT for discovering general principles for identifying human disease genes.

"There is a significant deficit in our social system, globally, that scientists are underappreciated as people who are making significant contributions to our everyday survival," said Mr. Milner, an early Facebook investor.

The Breakthrough Prize, which comes with a cash grant of $3 million per award, is one of the most lucrative annual science prizes. Winners of the Nobel Prize are paid eight million Swedish kronor, or $1.27 million.

Prizes are a booming industry, with dozens of new ones launched by companies, billionaires and foundations over the last 15 years, but their impact on research is a topic of debate, with philanthropists and scholars disagreeing about whether they are a good way to produce better and more research.

"It is not enough money to be an incentivizer—this is not the way that people plan their careers," said James English, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has written about the economy of prizes. When Alfred Nobel set up his awards, said Mr. English, he donated a much larger sum for the era. If the tech-titan prize was worth a billion dollars, he said, "then that is going to change the field."

To establish the prize, Mr. Milner said he reached out to Messrs. Zuckerberg and Brin several months ago about contributing. Mr. Milner declined to say how much money the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation has in its coffers, or how much each of its sponsors contributed or for how long. The foundation plans to hand out at least five of the prizes annually.

From their earliest conversations, "everybody agreed that motivating young scientists to stay in science, and not necessarily switch to areas that are better monetized, is one of the top priorities," Mr. Milner said.

Mr. Brin joined in contributing to the prize with his wife Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder of DNA science company 23andMe Inc., and Mr. Zuckerberg did so with his wife Priscilla Chan, who has studied medicine.

"I think that our society needs more heroes who are scientists, researchers and engineers," said Mr. Zuckerberg at the launch event.

In a statement, Mr. Brin said: "Curing a disease should be worth more than a touchdown."

Last year, Mr. Milner also gave out his own self-funded $3 million prizes for research into fundamental physics.

Mr. Milner said he hopes to attract other sponsors and grow into an "open platform" to support more prizes. "Other sponsors can come in and establish their own prizes for different diseases in order to increase the impact," he said.

The organizers of the Breakthrough Prize, designed to help advance research and celebrate scientists, plan to launch it Wednesday in San Francisco, said Mr. Milner, an early investor in Facebook and other Internet companies.

"There is a significant deficit in our social system, globally, that scientists are underappreciated as people who are making significant contributions to our everyday survival," said Mr. Milner in an interview. Scientists are "wonderful people who are mostly invisible," he said.

The Breakthrough Prize, which comes with a cash grant of $3 million per award, will be one of the most lucrative annual science awards. Winners of the Nobel Prize are paid eight million Swedish kronor ($1.27 million).

To establish the prize, Mr. Milner said he reached out to Messrs. Zuckerberg and Brin several months ago about contributing to a foundation, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation. Mr. Milner declined to say how much money the foundation has in its coffers right now, or how much each of its individual sponsors contributed or for how long. The foundation said it plans to hand out at least five of the prizes annually, with selections made by previous recipients.

Mr. Milner said he is hoping the foundation can attract other sponsors and grow into an "open platform" to support more prizes. "Other sponsors can come in and establish their own prizes for different diseases in order to increase the impact," he said.

The foundation said Mr. Brin joined in contributing to the prize with his wife Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder of DNA science company 23andMe Inc., and Mr. Zuckerberg did so with his wife Priscilla Chan, who has studied medicine.

In a statement provided by the foundation, Mr. Zuckerberg said he felt it had "the potential to provide a platform for other models of philanthropy, so people everywhere have an opportunity at a better future."

Also in the statement Mr. Brin said: "Curing a disease should be worth more than a touchdown." A Google spokeswoman didn't return messages requesting comment from Mr. Brin.

Last year, Mr. Milner also gave out his own self-funded $3 million prizes for research into fundamental physics.

From his earliest discussions with other founders of the prize, "everybody agreed that motivating young scientists to stay in science, and not necessarily switch to areas that are better monetized, is one of the top priorities," Mr. Milner said.

Silicon Valley, which has helped young computer scientists make money at a young age, has helped create such better-paying occupations.

But Mr. Milner sees growing ties between computer science and health research. "Here, I think we will see some sort of merger between the people with the engineering skills and the people with the life sciences skills," he said.

Write to Geoffrey A. Fowler at geoffrey.fowler@wsj.com