Cern Nuclear Research Center honors the legacy of Peter Higgs
Published: Wednesday, Apr 10th 2024, 15:10
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The nuclear research center Cern in Geneva reacted on Wednesday to the death of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs. "An important part of Cern's history and achievements is linked to him," said Cern Director Fabiola Gianotti in an obituary published by the research facility.
"I am very sad and will miss him dearly," continued Gianotti. According to the Scottish University of Edinburgh, 94-year-old Higgs died at his home on Monday.
The physicist became world-famous for his theory on the mass of elementary particles. In 1964, he postulated the existence of the Higgs boson named after him. The breakthrough came almost 50 years later at Cern. On July 4, 2012, the Higgs particle was detected for the first time in Geneva. The namesake was in the audience. "For me, it's an incredible signal that it happened in my lifetime," said Higgs at Cern at the time, as recordings show.
The discovery of the Higgs particle is considered a great moment in physics. It explains the visible universe at the most fundamental level, wrote Cern. Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics together with François Englert in 2013 for the discovery of the Higgs mechanism.
Gianotti praised Higgs as "a very special person, an immensely inspiring figure for physicists all over the world, a man of rare humility, a great teacher and someone who explained physics in a very simple but profound way."
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