Stephen Hawking and CERN have won this year’s prestigious Fundamental Physics Prize. The award was given to Hawking for his discovery that black holes emit radiation, and his “deep contributions” to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe. The prize money – a whopping R26m – is considered to be science’s most lucrative award.

An identical prize was also given to the seven scientists who led the effort to find a Higgs-like particle at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider – the world’s biggest atom-smasher.

Set up in July by Russian internet billionaire Yuri Milner, the Fundamental Physics Prize aims to recognise scientific breakthroughs that have “advanced our knowledge of the Universe at the deepest level”.

In an interview with The Guardian, Professor Hawking said he was delighted and honoured to receive the award:

Stephen Hawking, the former Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, must ponder how to spend $3m (£1.8m) that has landed in his bank account after winning the most lucrative science prize ever established.

“No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before. Nevertheless prizes like these play an important role in giving public recognition for achievement in physics. They increase the stature of physics and interest in it.” Said Hawkings.

[Source: The Guardian]