In a year that witnessed extraordinary scientific achievements and global recognition, Yuri Milner’s philanthropic initiatives have demonstrated the transformative power of strategic investment in science education and research.
From a teenager in Singapore whose grandmother’s diabetes inspired a groundbreaking video to Hollywood’s brightest stars celebrating gene-editing pioneers, 2025 has showcased how science can unite cultures, solve pressing problems, and inspire the next generation of innovators.
IMAGE: UNSPLASH
The Personal Touch: Science Inspired By Love
Sixteen-year-old Jasmine Eyal from Singapore’s victory in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge exemplifies how personal experiences can drive scientific curiosity.
When Jasmine’s grandmother, affectionately called “Popo,” struggled with Type 1 diabetes, it sparked more than just concern—it ignited a passion for understanding mechanogenetic cellular engineering that would eventually captivate judges and audiences worldwide.
“I was inspired to learn more about this field of biology because of its potential to revolutionize health and medicine, treat chronic illnesses, and improve health outcomes,” Jasmine explained after her victory.
“The intersection of biology and technology in cellular engineering is an area where breakthroughs can dramatically improve the quality of life for countless individuals, including Popo.”
The competition that brought Jasmine’s story to global attention represents just one facet of Yuri Milner’s comprehensive approach to advancing scientific understanding. Founded by Julia and Yuri Milner, the Breakthrough Junior Challenge has grown from an ambitious educational experiment into a global phenomenon.
The Ripple Effect Of Recognition
Jasmine’s victory creates impact far beyond her personal achievement. Her $250,000 scholarship opens doors for advanced study in computer science and biology. Her teacher, Julie Li-Eyal, receives $50,000 in recognition of her role in fostering scientific curiosity.
Most significantly, Community High School in Brooklyn will receive a state-of-the-art science lab worth $100,000, designed in partnership with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
This three-pronged approach—supporting the student, recognizing the educator, and strengthening the institution—reflects the strategic thinking behind all of Milner’s initiatives. Rather than simply rewarding individual achievement, these programs create lasting infrastructure for scientific advancement.
“We are incredibly grateful for this generous gift, which will be a true blessing for our students and the entire Community High School family,” said Esosa Ogbahon, Superintendent of Beginning with Children and Community High School Principal.
“Having access to a dedicated lab will allow our students to engage in hands-on learning, deepen their curiosity, and explore the endless possibilities that science offers.”
From Competition To Celebrity: The Breakthrough Prize Spectacle
While the Junior Challenge celebrates emerging talent, the Breakthrough Prize elevates established scientists to celebrity status.
The 2025 ceremony at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar brought together an unprecedented gathering of scientific achievement and Hollywood glamour, with $18.75 million awarded to researchers whose work is literally saving lives and expanding human knowledge.
The evening’s most powerful moment came when young leukemia survivor Alyssa Tapley described how gene-editing laureate David Liu’s work saved her life at age 13.
Liu, visibly moved by her testimony, declared that “breakthroughs with impact begin with compassion”—a statement that perfectly encapsulates the human-centered philosophy driving Milner’s philanthropic vision.
The 2025 Life Sciences winners exemplify this connection between scientific advancement and human welfare. The five scientists who shared recognition for GLP-1 research—Daniel J.
Drucker, Joel Habener, Jens Juul Holst, Lotte Bjerre Knudsen, and Svetlana Mojsov—developed the foundation for drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy that are transforming treatment for diabetes and obesity, conditions affecting hundreds of millions worldwide.
“For millions of people around the world with type 2 diabetes, these medicines have transformed life,” noted presenter Lauren Sánchez during the ceremony. “And for millions of people suffering from obesity, they are enabling unheard-of weight loss.”
Science As Spectacle: The Hollywood Strategy
The decision to present scientific achievement alongside A-list celebrities isn’t mere pageantry—it’s strategic cultural intervention. By featuring presenters like Christina Aguilera, Drew Barrymore, MrBeast, Jodie Foster, and Katy Perry, the Breakthrough Prize challenges society’s hierarchy of recognition and achievement.
“This is the one night Hollywood and Science come together,” declared host James Corden, capturing the unique nature of an event where theoretical physicists receive the same red-carpet treatment as movie stars.
This approach directly implements one of the key principles outlined in Yuri Milner’s Eureka Manifesto: treating scientists as heroes and ensuring they have a public presence.
The strategy appears to be working—the ceremony’s global broadcast and social media reach bring scientific achievement into mainstream consciousness in ways traditional academic recognition cannot match.
Global Collaboration Meets Individual Excellence
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the 2025 Breakthrough Prize was the recognition of more than 13,000 researchers from over 70 countries who contributed to four experimental collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.
The $3 million Fundamental Physics prize, split among the ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb experiments, celebrates collaborative science on an unprecedented scale.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, presenting alongside Yuri Milner, described their work as “a quest, driven by pure curiosity” that “has also improved all of our lives.” Milner framed it even more broadly, calling it “humanity’s fundamental mission.”
The decision to donate 100% of the prize funds to the CERN & Society Foundation for doctoral student grants demonstrates another key aspect of Milner’s approach: using recognition to create future opportunities for scientific advancement.
Beyond Recognition: Building Scientific Infrastructure
The success of both the Junior Challenge and Breakthrough Prize reflects a comprehensive strategy for advancing scientific understanding that goes far beyond simply handing out awards.
These programs create what might be called “scientific infrastructure”—not just laboratories and equipment, but cultural frameworks that make scientific pursuit attractive, accessible, and socially valued.
The numbers tell the story: the Breakthrough Junior Challenge now attracts more than 2,300 applicants from over 200 countries, generating nearly 30,000 educational videos. Previous winners have gone on to study at institutions including MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford.
The competition’s growth from a novel experiment to a global phenomenon demonstrates the hunger for platforms that celebrate scientific communication and learning.
Similarly, the Breakthrough Prize’s 14-year journey has awarded more than $326 million to over 100 individual scientists and research teams. More importantly, it has created a new model for how societies can recognize and celebrate intellectual achievement.
Looking Forward: The 2026 Horizon
As 2025’s achievements settle into scientific history, the infrastructure for future breakthroughs continues expanding. The 11th Breakthrough Junior Challenge opened in May, inviting the next generation of science communicators to share their understanding of complex concepts through creative video presentations.
Meanwhile, public nominations for the 2026 Breakthrough Prizes opened in April, democratizing the recognition process and partnering with the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities to engage directly with researchers worldwide.
The partnership with ALLEA, which represents almost 60 academies from over 40 countries, reflects Milner’s understanding that advancing science requires global cooperation and perspective. By creating pathways for recognition that span continents and cultures, these initiatives help science fulfill its potential as what Milner calls humanity’s “universal language.”
The Milner Method: Strategy Behind The Success
What makes Yuri Milner’s approach distinctive isn’t just the scale of financial commitment—though the hundreds of millions invested certainly matter—but the comprehensive understanding of how scientific advancement actually happens.
By supporting everything from teenage science communicators to established research teams, these initiatives create an ecosystem for discovery that operates at multiple levels simultaneously.
The humanitarian dimension adds another layer of impact. Through initiatives like Tech for Refugees, Milner demonstrates how technological innovation can address immediate human needs while building capacity for future scientific advancement.
This dual focus on fundamental research and practical application ensures that scientific progress serves human flourishing.
The 2025 achievements of Jasmine Eyal, the Breakthrough Prize laureates, and the thousands of young people participating in global science competitions represent more than individual success stories.
They demonstrate the power of strategic philanthropy to create cultural change, inspire new generations of scientific thinkers, and build the foundation for discoveries that haven’t yet been imagined.
Looking toward 2026 and beyond, the frameworks established through these initiatives continue expanding, creating new opportunities for recognition, collaboration, and discovery.
The teenager researching treatments for her grandmother’s diabetes today might well be accepting a Breakthrough Prize decades from now—a cycle of inspiration and achievement that exemplifies science’s greatest promise: the power to transform individual curiosity into collective human advancement.
IMAGE: UNSPLASH
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