Science isn’t glamorous. It says a lot when kids these days are more familiar with Mark Zuckerberg than they are with Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Thomas Edison, or Isaac Newton. So, what better way to inspire and encourage scientists than to recognize and reward them for their innovative work with huge cash prizes? Here are just a few examples of some lucrative science prizes that are being awarded to exceptional researchers.

• The $3 million Fundamental Physics Prize recognizes major achievements in fundamental physics. The prize is given out by The Milner Foundation, which was established by tech investor Yuri Milner. Compare that to the Nobel Prize in Physics which awards winners “only” $1.2 million. [url]
• The Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists gives out $250,000 in unrestricted funds to exceptional young scientists under the age of 42. Each year, one winner is selected in each of three fields: Physical Sciences and Engineering, Chemistry, and Life Sciences. [url]
• The X Prize Foundation has already handed out $10 million to the first team to successfully launch a reusable manned craft into space twice in two weeks. That honor went to Scaled Composites, the company behind SpaceShipOne. Curious about the guy behind the X Prize? Check out this short film called “The Sky is NOT the Limit” about Peter Diamandis, the founder of the X Prize Foundation. [url]
• The Michelson Prize in Reproductive Biology is awarding $25 million to the first researcher to invent a cheap, single-dose method for sterilizing dogs and cats. This will hopefully eliminate the need for millions of euthanasia procedures performed each year on animals. Twenty-two research teams are already working to solve the problem. [url]

If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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