Morgan Freeman to Host BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE Ceremony on FOX, Today

THE BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE will mark its fifth anniversary celebrating top achievements in the fields of physics, life sciences and mathematics, with a star-studded ceremony on Sunday, Dec. 4, at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.

The ceremony will be hosted by Academy Award®-winning actor Morgan Freeman and will feature a special performance by 15-time Grammy®-winning singer, songwriter and producer Alicia Keys. Academy Award® winner Jeremy Irons, recently seen in the biographical drama "The Man Who Knew Infinity," in the role of Cambridge mathematician G.H. Hardy, will serve as a presenter. He will recognize the accomplishments in the mathematics category.

The ceremony will be broadcast live in its entirety on NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC at 10/9c on Sunday, Dec. 4 and an edited one-hour version of the ceremony will air Sunday, Dec. 18 (7:00-8:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. The edited version also will air globally on NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC in 171 countries and 45 languages.

The BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE ceremony is presented by co-founders Sergey Brin (Google) and Anne Wojcicki (23andMe), Yuri Milner (DST Global) and Julia Milner, and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Priscilla Chan (Chan Zuckerberg Initiatives), along with Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter.

Now in its fifth year, the BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE - Silicon Valley's munificent Science prize - honors paradigm-shifting research and discovery in the fields of fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics. Across all categories for this year, the BREAKTHROUGH PRIZE Foundation will award $25 million to honor both outstanding career achievement and emerging talent. This year, a total of eight $3 million prizes will be awarded to 12 individuals. Additionally, another six $100,000 prizes will be awarded to 10 winners of the New Horizons in Physics and Mathematics Prizes. The ceremony will also recognize the winner of the second annual BREAKTHROUGH Junior Challenge for students, which will award $250,000 scholarship to a student whose original Science video brings to life an important scientific or mathematical idea or principle. The Science teacher who inspired the winning student will win $50,000. The winner's school will also receive a state-of-the-art Science lab valued at $100,000.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski

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