Higgs and Englert awarded Nobel Prize for Physics

The Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to the UK’s Professor Peter Higgs and Professor Francois Englert from Belgium for “the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.”

The CERN website reveals that the Brout-Englert-Higgs (BEH) mechanism was first proposed in 1964 in two papers published independently, the first by Belgian physicists Robert Brout and François Englert, and the second by British physicist Peter Higgs. It explains how the force responsible for beta decay is much weaker than electromagnetism, but is better known as the mechanism that endows fundamental particles with mass.

A third paper, published by Americans Gerald Guralnik and Carl Hagen with their British colleague Tom Kibble further contributed to the development of the new idea, which now forms an essential part of the Standard Model of particle physics.

“This year’s prize is about something small that makes all the difference,” said Staffan Normark, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The University of Edinburgh – where Higgs holds the position of emeritus professor – released a statement from the scientist: “I am overwhelmed to receive this award and thank the Royal Swedish Academy,” he said.

I would also like to congratulate all those who have contributed to the discovery of this new particle and to thank my family, friends and colleagues for their support. I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research.”

Speaking at the ceremony via phone link, Englert, 80, said he was “very happy” to win the award.

European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said: “This is recognition of the contribution made to modern physics by François Englert and Peter Higgs. I would also like to pay tribute to the thousands of scientists who have worked tirelessly at CERN over many years to detect this elusive particle. EU-funded research has contributed to the research at CERN, including enabling the processing of the huge amounts of data from the LHC experiments that confirmed the predictions.”

David Willetts, UK minister for universities and science, said the award was “an incredible endorsement of the quality of UK science”, with Prime Minister David Cameron adding: “This brilliant achievement is a richly deserved recognition of Peter Higgs’ lifetime of dedicated research and his passion for science.”