Nobel Prize for Physics 2013 Goes to Higgs and Englert
This year’s Nobel Prize for Physics has been awarded to Professor Peter Higgs — an honorary fellow of IOP and 1997 winner of the Dirac Medal — and Professor Francois Englert for their theoretical discovery of the Higgs mechanism.
In 1964 Professor Higgs, based at the University of Edinburgh, and Professor Englert, based at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, separately postulated the existence of the fundamental Higgs particle.
In response to the announcement, Dr. Frances Saunders, President of the Institute of Physics (IOP), said, “The work undertaken to discover the Higgs — from the original theories to the construction of the world’s most powerful particle-smasher — has led to a very exciting and productive period in physics research. It has been a long journey but one that has inspired a generation to engage with the subject.
“With the existence of the Higgs boson confirmed, explaining why the fundamental building blocks of nature acquire mass, we can now move on to the next challenges to our understanding such as the phenomena of dark matter and quantum gravity.”
To mark the occasion, IOP Scotland today launches a new bi-annual competition open to 10-15 year olds (P6-S4) in Scottish schools. School groups can enter the competition to win a certificate signed by Professor Higgs and 3D crystal souvenirs from CERN that include a representation of a Higgs event. More detail will soon be available at http://www.iopscompetition.org.uk.
Contact:
Joe Winters
IOP Head of Media,
+44 (0) 20 7470 4815, cell: +44 (0) 7946 321473
joseph.winters@iop.org
More about the Higgs boson:
http://www.iop.org/publications/iop/2012/page_59338.html
A selection of papers from IOP Publishing related to the Higgs boson and mechanism are being made freely available at http://iopscience.iop.org later today.
The Institute of Physics is a leading scientific society. We are a charitable organization with a worldwide membership of more than 50,000, working together to advance physics education, research and application. We engage with policymakers and the general public to develop awareness and understanding of the value of physics and, through IOP Publishing, we are world leaders in professional scientific communications.
