- Written by Georgina Ranard
- BBC science correspondent
Image source, University of Edinburgh
British scientist Peter Higgs, who invented the idea of the Higgs boson particle, has died at the age of 94.
He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013 for his revolutionary work showing how the boson helps hold the universe together.
A statement from the University of Edinburgh said he died in the city on Monday.
She described him as “a truly gifted scientist whose vision and imagination have enriched our knowledge of the world that surrounds us.”
Professor Brian Cox paid tribute to Higgs on
“We will remember his name as long as we do physics in the form of the Higgs boson.”
In the 1960s, Higgs and other physicists worked on an idea to explain why the building blocks of the universe have mass.
This sparked the search for the holy grail of physics – a particle that could explain three fundamental forces (electromagnetism, the weak and strong nuclear forces) in a single theory.
In 2012, scientists discovered it using the Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland, and named it the Higgs boson.
A year later, Higgs' work was recognized and he received the Nobel Prize, which he shared with François Englert of Belgium.
He was a shy man and was not comfortable with the attention his theory brought him. When the announcement was made, he wiped a tear from his eye, but told reporters: “It's so nice to be right sometimes.”
CERN's president, Fabiola Gianotti, told BBC News: “Peter was a very special person, a very inspiring figure for physicists around the world, a man of rare humility, a great teacher, and someone who explains physics in a very simple and yet simple way.” Way deep.”
She added: “I am very sad, and I will miss him terribly.”
Alan Barr, professor of physics at the University of Oxford, praised the enormous impact that the Higgs has had on our understanding of the universe.
“He proposed the existence of a field that pervades the entire universe, from mass to particles, from electrons to top quarks.”
“He was also a gentleman, humble and gentleman, always giving credit to others and gently encouraging future generations of scholars and scientists,” he added.
Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf praised him as “a visionary whose idea, and its discovery some 48 years later, changed our understanding of the universe”.
Ballabh Ghosh steps inside the world's largest particle accelerator – which discovered the Higgs boson.
