Tech billionaires from around the world, including Facebook, Google and Alibaba founders, awarded $25 million to top scientists, celebrating the biggest achievements in physics, life sciences, and math at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley on Sunday.

The prizes began in 2012 with Yuri Milner, the Russian billionaire and investor, and his wife Julia rewarding theoretical physicists for their outstanding scientific achievements annually. Since then, they have been joined by other billionaires that include Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, Google's Sergey Brin, biotech firm 23andMe's Anne Wojcicki, and Alibaba's Jack Ma and his wife, Cathy Zhang.

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Milner, during a call with Fortune, said it is a shame that scientists receive a lot less recognition than movie stars, musicians, and other celebrities. This is out of balance considering the influence that science has on our lives. Miller studied physics before making his fortune from various high-profile Internet ventures.

Present at the event were A-list celebrities such as Morgan Freeman, who was an emcee, Alicia Keys as a performer and Jeremy Irons as an award-presenter, among others.

According to Fortune, the Breakthrough Prizes, in its fifth year, granted $3 million a piece to the top researchers, more than any other science award. A total of 15 prizes were awarded, including six $100,000 New Horizons Prizes for early career accomplishments and one $250,000 Breakthrough Junior Prize for a teenager who created a compelling video explaining scientific concepts.

The former CEO of Mail.ru, Russia's biggest Internet company, talked about the recent discovery of gravity waves which, as he said, was something very special for him. Three leaders and a team of thousand members of the LIGO project were awarded Breakthrough prizes earlier this year for successfully validating Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity.

The list of Breakthrough Prize winners can be seen on the official Breakthrough Prize website.