Lee Roberts (left), a CAS professor of physics, and Dillon Brout, a CAS assistant professor of astronomy and physics, were awarded prestigious 2026 Breakthrough Prizes on April 18. Described as the “Oscars of Science,” the awards were cofounded 12 years ago by leading technology philanthropists, including Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg. Photo of Lee Roberts by Cydney Scott; photo of Dillon Brout courtesy of Dillon Brout

Accolades

Two BU Scientists Receive Prestigious 2026 Breakthrough Prizes

Lee Roberts and Dillon Brout honored for transformative achievements in physics and astronomy

Two Boston University faculty members were honored with 2026 Breakthrough Prizes—among the world’s most prestigious science awards—at a ceremony in Santa Monica, Calif., on April 18. 

Lee Roberts, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of physics, received a Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, one of six top prizes awarded annually for transformative achievements in life sciences and fundamental physics.

Dillon Brout, a CAS assistant professor of physics and astronomy, received a New Horizons in Physics Prize, which recognizes outstanding early‑career researchers for major advances in the field. 

Often described as the “Oscars of Science,” the Breakthrough Prizes were cofounded by leading technology philanthropists, including Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, and award approximately $15 million each year. Each main prize includes a $3 million award—roughly triple the monetary value of a Nobel Prize. The New Horizons award is valued at $100,000. 

“BU is proud to have Lee Roberts and Dillon Brout as faculty members,” says Kenneth Lutchen, vice president and associate provost for research. “This is an extraordinary testimony to the innovative and breakthrough nature of Lee’s work in particle physics, and a terrific acknowledgement of the extraordinary work that Dillon has done so far in cosmology and supernova datasets.” 

“Lee and Dillon’s research is reshaping how we understand the universe,” says Stan Sclaroff, dean of Arts & Sciences. “Their achievements reflect both extraordinary individual excellence and the power of sustained, collaborative research in expanding human understanding and advancing knowledge that can change the world.”

Probing the Frontiers of Fundamental Physics

Roberts was recognized for his role in landmark muon g‑2 experiments at CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Fermilab—international collaborations spanning more than six decades. The teams were honored “for multi‑decade, groundbreaking contributions to the measurement of the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment, pushing the boundaries of experimental precision and igniting a new era in the quest for physics beyond the Standard Model,” according to the Breakthrough Prize citation. 

The experiments focused on the measurement of the muon, a heavier, unstable cousin of the electron that behaves like a tiny magnet. By comparing the muon’s measured magnetic strength to theoretical predictions, physicists can probe whether unknown particles or forces exist beyond the Standard Model, the most successful theory of particle physics to date. 

The effort began with pioneering experiments at CERN in the 1960s and 1970s, advanced with improved precision at Brookhaven in the 1990s, and culminated in the Fermilab experiment. In a dramatic logistical feat, Brookhaven’s 50‑ton, 15‑meter‑diameter storage ring was transported more than 3,200 miles to Fermilab in 2013 by road and barge. 

Final results from Fermilab achieved a precision of 127 parts per billion—about 30,000 times more precise than the first g‑2 experiment in 1965. While early findings suggested a discrepancy with theoretical predictions, later refinements narrowed the gap. Even so, the work stands as a remarkable theoretical, experimental, and technological achievement in the ongoing search for new physics. 

“For three decades, these experimentalists have challenged the Standard Model of particle physics, subjecting it to the most exacting and rigorous tests,” says Shyamsunder Erramilli, CAS professor of physics and chair of the department. “Theirs is a story of heartbreaks, ingenious solutions, and ultimate triumph: a testament to the courage and persistence that has forced us to reexamine the foundations of what was long considered settled science. And they have strengthened all of science by doing so.”

A BU professor since 1977, Roberts participated directly in the Brookhaven experiments of the 1990s and early 2000s and in the Fermilab experiment from 2013 through 2025. He received the American Physical Society’s 2023 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics and was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2024. 

The muon g 2 collaboration involved more than 170 scientists from 34 institutions across seven countries, including Boston University Professors Robert Carey, James Miller, and Lawrence Sulak, along with their PhD students and post-doctoral fellows. Eric Hazen, senior research engineer in the Neurophotonics Center, who ran the BU Electronics Design Facility (EDF) for many years, also made important contributions, as many components for experiments were fabricated at the EDF and the BU Scientific Instrument Facility (SIF).

“The thing I love about the Breakthrough Prize is it recognizes the entire collaboration, because so many people made this thing happen,” Roberts says. “The thing about a big collaboration is that each person brings a different set of skills and abilities. We had a very congenial collaboration at Brookhaven, and it continued at Fermilab, and I really want to acknowledge that we’ve had amazing young people on both sets of experiments.”

Illuminating the Expansion of the Universe

Brout was honored, along with five colleagues, with a New Horizons in Physics Prize for influential contributions to cosmology, particularly in cosmic microwave background and supernova research. He was one of 15 early-career researchers in physics and mathematics to receive six New Horizons awards, each valued at $100,000. 

“I feel incredibly honored to be included with my co-laureates, whose work I deeply respect and admire,” says Brout, who joined the Boston University physics and astronomy departments in 2023. “It is so meaningful to see our work on Type Ia supernova and cosmic microwave background cosmology recognized as precision tools for understanding the nature of the universe, reflecting decades of work by many people who built the foundations well before me, and inspiring students of cosmology today and in the future.”

A cosmologist who studies the physics underpinning the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe, Brout has been a central contributor to the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a decade‑long international collaboration involving more than 400 scientists. He joined the project at its outset as a graduate student and later co-led the cosmological analysis team responsible for utilizing supernovae—exploding stars that serve as precise reference points for measuring the universe’s size and expansion history—to measure dark energy and dark matter.

He has also founded the team that built and analyzed the largest and most precise supernova dataset available, Pantheon+, which cosmologists use to map the universe’s expansion with unprecedented accuracy. A paper based on Pantheon+ received an IOP Publishing Top Cited Paper Award, granted to papers in the top 1 percent of the most-cited articles that have been recently published in the IOP’s journals. Their finding contradicts measurements from the Planck Collaboration—which studied the early universe just 380,000 years after the Big Bang (as far back as researchers can see)—and thus points to gaps in existing theories. It is now one of the most widely discussed issues in cosmology and has become a major driver of research aimed at testing Einstein’s theory of general relativity and understanding the universe in its earliest moments. 

Brout is now leading the Dark Energy Science Collaboration for the Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), located in the Chilean Andes. LSST will build on DES technology but with major advances: upgraded hardware, a far larger field of view, more sensitive electronics, and a rapid alert system capable of identifying cosmic events in near real time. Together, these improvements are expected to dramatically expand scientists’ ability to probe dark energy and the structure of the universe. 

“Professor Brout’s research is distinguished by its rigor, innovation, and strong impact within the cosmology community,” says Erramilli. “The Breakthrough Prize recognizes his contributions to laying the foundation of a new era in 21st-century supernova cosmology.”

Paul Withers, CAS chair and professor of astronomy, adds: “Professor Brout’s groundbreaking work at the intersection of cosmology and astrophysics has had revolutionary impacts on understanding the origin and evolution of the universe. This award reflects the tremendous reputation and stature of Boston University’s Cosmology Group and its talented members. The astronomy department is excited to see what BU’s next discoveries in this exciting, dynamic field will reveal.”