Honorary Professor wins Nobel Prize for Physics

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Professor Peter Higgs has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in recognition of his work on the famously elusive boson that bears his name which scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) triumphantly discovered in July last year. The prize was awarded to him jointly with Francois Englert.

Professor Higgs wins Nobel prize for Physics 2013Professor Higgs has strong ties to Swansea University, and in July 2008 was awarded a Fellowship during the degree ceremony for the School of Physical Sciences.

He has previously given lectures at Swansea University during National Science Week and has taught current members of the Physics Department as research students including Professor Simon Hands FLSW, previously of CERN and now Director of Research at the College of Science.

Swansea University also has strong links with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN which was built to find the Higgs Boson. Swansea University alumnus and Honorary Fellow, Professor Lyn Evans CBE FRS, was Director of the LHC project, while many members of the academic staff at the Department of Physics have also worked on the CERN project.

Vice Chancellor Professor Richard B Davies said: ‘We are all celebrating the success of Professor Higgs, an Honorary Fellow at Swansea University, on being jointly awarded the Nobel prize for Physics. Over the years, we have valued hugely the support and advice that Professor Higgs has given our Physics department, which includes a number of leading researchers on particle physics. We were also very pleased that, within days of finding the Higgs-Boson particle, Professor Higgs spoke about the discovery at Swansea.’