The Dark Matter Pavia Prize is a pivotal award that is mentioned several times in the 2024 Apple TV series. From the responses of Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton) and Daniela Vargas Dessen (Jennifer Connelly) in the first episode, the Pavia award is a coveted trophy that comes with a lot of prestige. Viewers may be wondering whether this prize is real or fake, or if it’s based on something in real life. Here’s if the Pavia Prize is a genuine award in the Dark Matter Apple TV series and what it means in the context of the show.
What is the Dark Matter Pavia Prize?
The Pavia Prize in the Dark Matter show on Apple TV is not a real award, but in the show, it comes with a $1 million bonus and gives the recipient a lot of recognition.
This prize is very close to the Nobel Prize, or more specifically the Nobel Prize for Physics, which also comes with a lot of renown and a monetary award worth approximately $1 million. It’s unclear why the showrunners opted not to use the Nobel Prize instead of the fictional Pavia Prize, but it could be due to legal reasons.
Either way, the Pavia Prize is pivotal to both major timelines of the show. In the first episode, Jason learns that his friend Ryan Holder has recently received the Pavia Prize. While the monetary award is nice, its true worth is recognition from investors and institutions that can provide grants and start-up money for various ventures. Ryan uses this opportunity to create a neurotech company and give Jason a job offer, though he somewhat feels as though the prize could have been his considering that his contribution helped Ryan win it in the first place.
Later in episode four, the alternate Jason Dessen reveals that him winning the Pavia Prize 10 years ago led to Leighton Vance investing billions toward research and development of The Box. According to the book that the series is based on, he won the award for “placing a macroscopic object into a state of superposition.” When the original Jason finds himself in an alternate world, he sees this trophy in a bookcase in what is supposed to be his son’s room. This is just one of many objects that provides evidence to the original Jason that he’s no longer in his own timeline.
