There was a red carpet before the ceremony at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan were there to present awards.
Lenny Kravitz performed. He talked about the importance of getting young people interested in science.
"There's so much pushing kids to go into so many other directions, whether it be sports, whether it be Hollywood. We need as much help as we can," Kravitz said. "We live in a world where we need great solutions for great problems."
The three-million dollar breakthrough prizes are presented in the fields of life sciences, fundamental physics, and math.