Imperial physicists share in prize for masterminding Higgs boson detector

Professor Jim Virdee and Dr Michel Della Negra (Credit: CERN, 2006)

Two Imperial physicists have been praised as particle detector masterminds, following last year's discovery of a Higgs boson at CERN.

A prestigious award from the European Physical Society (EPS) is the latest high profile prize given to scientists involved in the discovery of a Higgs boson.

In 2012, scientists revealed ground breaking results from the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) and A Toroidal LHC Apparatus (ATLAS) experiments at CERN; the discovery of a new particle, whose associated field gives mass to the fundamental particles, and is the last missing link of the Standard Model of particle physics.

This week it was announced that the 2013 EPS High Energy Physics Prize will be awarded to the CMS and ATLAS collaborations 'for the discovery of a Higgs boson' and to three individually named scientists 'for their pioneering and outstanding leadership roles in the making of the CMS and ATLAS experiments':

• Professor Tejinder (Jim) Virdee FRS - Imperial College London
• Dr Michel Della Negra - Imperial College London
• Dr Peter Jenni - CERN and University of Freiburg

As the 'founding fathers' of the CMS, Professor Virdee and Dr Della Negra 'contributed much to the conceptual design, then led the teams that designed, constructed and commissioned the CMS detector over the course of the twenty years', cited the committee of renowned scientists from across Europe who voted for the EPS prize.

Professor Virdee said: "I am truly honoured to receive this prestigious award. It recognises the enormous challenges that CMS faced and overcame over the last two decades, from the early years of design and through the long construction period. It is the painstaking and dedicated work of the many scientists and engineers that has made CMS a truly remarkable experiment. In discovering a Higgs boson we all have achieved something historic, constituting the most important scientific advance so far of this new century."

Dr Della Negra said: "I am very grateful to the prize board for this award. It also recognizes the superb work that has consumed much of the working lives of so many, from all over the world, on the experiments and the LHC accelerator. We hope this discovery is just the first of many exciting discoveries that the LHC has the potential to make."

Professor Jordan Nash, Head of High Energy Physics at Imperial, said: "We take great pride in the fact that two of the three experimental physicists from the LHC experiments individually recognized by this prize are affiliated with our group in Imperial's Department of Physics. Their dedication and singular drive over two decades to fashion CMS has led to a ground-breaking discovery with all expectations of more to come."

People at work on the CMS detector during its current shutdown  © 2013 CERN

Research at the LHC is currently on hold while maintenance and upgrade works are taking place during its first long shutdown since operation began in 2009. CMS scientists are busy analysing the masses of data collected during its operation and maintaining the detector, preparing to reboot it from 2015 onwards when the LHC accelerator starts colliding protons once again.

Professor Virdee continued: "The discovery of a Higgs boson will not only be seen as the crowning moment of the Standard Model of particle physics but also the opening of an exciting new chapter in fundamental science”.

The award ceremony will take place at the EPS-HEP 2013 conference in Stockholm, Sweden, on 22 July.

See the press release of this article