The first direct image of a black hole, obtained by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT, a network of eight radio dishes that creates an Earth-sized interferometer) earlier this year, has been recognised by the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The $3 million prize will be shared equally between 347 researchers who were co-authors of the six papers published by the EHT collaboration on 10 April. Also announced were six New Horizons Prizes worth $100,000 each, which recognise early-career achievements. In physics, Jo Dunkley (Princeton), Samaya Nissanke (University of Amsterdam) and Kendrick Smith (Perimeter Institute) were rewarded for the development of novel techniques to extract fundamental physics from astronomical data. Simon Caron-Huot (McGill University) and Pedro Vieira (Perimeter Institute) were recognised for their “profound contributions to the understanding of quantum field theory”.
