R. Flaminio	M. Barton

The Special Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics was awarded for the detection of Gravitational Waves 100 years after Albert Einstein predicted their existence. The LIGO founders Prof. Ronald W.P. Drever, Prof. Kip S. Thorne and Prof. Rainer Weiss and other 1012 scientists who contributed to this discovery will share a 3M$ prize. Two members of NAOJ, the Director of the Gravitational Wave Project Office Prof. Raffaele Flaminio and Dr. Mark Barton, are among the recipients of the prize.
The Special Breakthrough Prize is a series of international awards that honor important, primarily recent, achievements in the categories of Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics.
The prizes were founded by Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Yuri and Julia Milner, and Jack Ma and Cathy Zhang. Committees of previous laureates choose the winners from candidates nominated in a process that is online and open to the public.
On May 2nd, 2016 the Special Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics was awarded for the detection of gravitational waves that occurred felicitously in the 100th year after Albert Einstein predicted their existence. The LIGO founders Prof. Ronald W.P. Drever, Prof. Kip S. Thorne and Prof. Rainer Weiss and other 1012 scientists who contributed to this major discovery, among which Prof. Raffaele Flaminio and Dr. Mark Barton, will share a 3M$ prize.

Web page of the special breakthrough prize announcement

Interview videos of the NAOJ recipients.

Raffaele Flaminio Interview video: Raffaele Flaminio (Italian)	Mark Barton