UK physicists share world’s biggest science prizes  

UK physicists are among the recipients of two $3M special prizes awarded by the Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation.

One of the prizes has been awarded to Professor Stephen Hawking (University of Cambridge) for his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes and for his deep contributions to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe.

The other prize has been awarded to seven senior scientists instrumental in the design, construction and operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), ATLAS and CMS experiments, and whose leadership led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle earlier this year.

Professor Jim Virdee was one of the five physicists who first proposed the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) particle physics experiment at CERN. The CMS is one of two large general-purpose detectors at the LHC, CMS is designed to see a wide range of particles and phenomena produced in high-energy collisions.

“In conceiving, constructing and operating the CMS experiment, and with the discovery of the Higgs-like boson, we have advanced science. For me, it is an honour and privilege to be associated with this advance."

Project Leader of the Large Hadron Collider accelerator during the construction period, Dr Lyn Evans said:

“It’s fantastic news. We have been acknowledged as the team that led the design, construction and commissioning of the LHC project. In the LHC collider, the accelerator, and the ATLAS and CMS experiments are so inter-related that it has required close cooperation throughout the whole 16 years of construction. The tremendous performance of ATLAS, CMS and the LHC is witness to the skill and dedication of our many collaborators which we are very proud to represent”.

The prizes are funded by the Milner Foundation.