Science superstars from Boston shine at major awards night

Four Boston-based scientists walked away with top honors from an awards event that values breakthroughs more than Hollywood does. Held on a Saturday in Los Angeles, the ceremony recognizes discoveries that can take a decade or more to prove, unlike Oscars that focus only on the previous year’s films. Stuart Orkin’s gene research earned him a share of the prize for creating the first FDA-approved gene-editing treatment for two painful blood disorders that millions carry. The therapy, Casgevy, was co-developed by drug companies CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals and has already changed lives for about 60 patients in its first two years on the market. Orkin now looks ahead to turning the injection into a daily pill, a shift that could open doors for many more. Orkin isn’t working alone. Swee Lay Thein from the National Institutes of Health shares this year’s award with him, adding another expert to the mix. The recognition arrives at a moment when some voices question the payoff of long science projects, a debate Orkin calls important. “Science sometimes faces doubt, ” he noted, “and this kind of prize reminds us why it matters. ”Particle physics got a boost from Lee Roberts, another Boston scientist honored in Los Angeles. Roberts helped run experiments that measured tiny particles called muons with greater accuracy, offering a path beyond today’s physics rulebook. His work spanned labs in New York and Illinois, pulling together over 170 researchers from 34 institutions worldwide, including students from Boston University. “Fresh minds with energy, ” Roberts said, “are what keep experiments moving forward. ” Cosmology owes a debt to Dillon Brout for building the largest and most precise map of supernova explosions. His dataset, Pantheon+, gives scientists a sharper look at how the universe is stretching over time. Brout calls the challenge humbling: scientists only get one shot at the experiment, and that experiment is the cosmos itself. His maps also sharpen how researchers handle uncertainty, pushing the limits of what we can measure. Theoretical physics gained new vocabulary thanks to Shu-Heng Shao. He and his team expanded the idea of symmetry in quantum fields, creating a kind of dictionary of hidden patterns that were previously invisible. Breakthroughs in 2021 and 2022 turned small early ideas into surprising new predictions. “Recognition shows that even abstract work can lead to concrete change, ” Shao reflected. Together, these four winners prove that science doesn’t need red carpets to deserve applause.