Prof Peter Higgs. Image: Hans G (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Renowned for his work in particle discovery, Prof Peter Higgs was a joint winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics.
The science world is currently paying tribute to the man who discovered the Higgs boson particle, following his death at the age of 94 at his Edinburgh home on 8 April.
Prof Peter Higgs gave his name and his life’s work to the particle he discovered. The Higgs boson explains how particles acquire mass and answers a lot of questions scientists had about the binding of the universe.
Higgs had been working on his theory since the 1960s, but his work was eventually proven by scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in 2012. It took them several years to prove.
Higgs was finally formally recognised for his contribution to particle physics in 2013 when the Nobel Prize Committee awarded him with that year’s prize for physics. He won the award alongside a Belgian theoretical physicist named François Englert who had also been conducting his own independent enquiries on the boson. Englert is still alive and is currently in his early 90s.
Today (10 April), the Nobel Prize Committee paid tribute to Higgs’ “pioneering” work. Others, such as comedian Dara Ó Briain, physicist Prof Brian Cox and recent Women Invent interviewee, particle physicist Dr Clara Nellist, all posted tributes to Higgs.
In its tribute, CERN hailed Higgs as an “iconic figure in modern science”.
It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Peter Higgs.
An iconic figure in modern science, Higgs postulated the existence of the eponymous Higgs boson in 1964. Its discovery at CERN in 2012 was the crowning achievement of the Standard Model of particle physics –… pic.twitter.com/LpnMVeG4N0
— CERN (@CERN) April 10, 2024
While the Nobel Prize win was obviously a huge highlight in his career, Higgs also won other honours. In 2015, he was awarded the Copley Medal by The Royal Society, an international group of the world’s most distinguished scientists.
Although an accomplished person, Higgs rejected scientific celebrity status and preferred to shun the limelight. A rare interview that The Guardian did with him in 2013 showed a man who was unassuming and not a fan of the delights of modern email.
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Image: Prof Peter Higgs by Hans G, via Wikimedia. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
