Higgs and Englert awarded Nobel Prize for Physics 2013

Professor Peter Higgs and Professor Francois Englert have been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics for their theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles.

In 1964, Professor Higgs, based at the University of Edinburgh, and Professor Englert (together with his now deceased colleague Robert Brout), based at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, separately postulated the existence of the fundamental Higgs Boson particle.

Their ideas were recently confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

Responding to the news from Stockholm this morning Professor David Delpy, Chief Executive of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) said:

“Congratulations to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert on their well-deserved Nobel Prize for Physics. It is a fantastic moment for British science and demonstrates how European collaboration and long-term support can result in increased global understanding of the Universe.”

Notes to Editors
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK’s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. EPSRC invests around £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, to help the nation handle the next generation of technological change. The areas covered range from information technology to structural engineering, and mathematics to materials science. This research forms the basis for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone’s health, lifestyle and culture. EPSRC works alongside other Research Councils with responsibility for other areas of research. The Research Councils work collectively on issues of common concern via Research Councils UK.