David Gross won the Special Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics with a whopping $3 million prize, as announced by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation on April 18, 2026.
The prize recognizes scientists whose discoveries have contributed significantly to the development of human knowledge.
The Breakthrough Prizes, commonly referred to as the “Oscars of Science,” were established in 2012 to celebrate the wonders of the 21st century scientific era.
David Gross, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (2004), was director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for three decades.
What earned Gross the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics?
In the early 1970s, there was a big gap in quantum field theory because it failed to define the powerful nuclear force that holds the atomic nucleus together.
But in 1973, Gross and his graduate student Frank Wilczek unraveled the mystery.
They discovered that the strong force acts in the opposite way to familiar forces like gravity: it gets weaker as particles get closer together, but gets stronger as they move further apart.
This discovery led to the development of quantum chromodynamics.
After winning the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, he drops a shocking prediction for humanity in an interview with Live Science.
Gross, when asked if humanity will ever get rid of nuclear weapons.
Gross predicted: “We don’t recommend that. It’s idealistic, but still, I hope so. Because if you don’t do it, there is always a risk of AI appearing in 100 years, but the chances of (humanity) living, with this estimate, 100 years, are very small, and living 200 years is infinitesimal.”
Gross became one of six honorees this year for his contributions to theoretical physics, winning the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.
David Gross remained an authority on fundamental physics for six decades.
