Edinburgh honour for Prof Higgs, 82
Published on Friday
24 February 2012 19:57
Theoretical physicist Peter Higgs is to be
honoured by the city which he has called home for more than half
a century.
Professor Higgs, 82, Emeritus Professor of
Physics at the University of Edinburgh, will be presented with
the Edinburgh Award 2011 at a ceremony at the City Chambers.
The Lord Provost of Edinburgh will present him
with an engraved Loving Cup - a traditional two handled drinking
vessel which represents friendship.
Prof Higgs, after whom the Higgs boson particle
is named, is the fifth person to be honoured with the special
award which recognises an outstanding contribution to the city.
The scientist, who was born in Newcastle upon
Tyne, follows in the footsteps of writers Ian Rankin and JK
Rowling, cyclist Sir Chris Hoy and judo expert George Kerr who
have previously received the accolade.
He said: "It is a great honour to receive this
award from the city that I fell in love with and is now my
adopted home."
His work in the 1960s proposed the existence of a
particle which came to be known as the Higgs boson, the
so-called God particle. It is an important component of the
Standard Model of particle physics that helps explain how
objects have mass.
The award comes following the announcement in
December 2011 from scientists at the European Organisation for
Nuclear (Cern) in Switzerland that two independent experiments
at the Large Hadron Collider had seen "tantalising hints" of the
existence of the Higgs boson.
Asked what it would mean to him if scientists at
Cern were to discover it, Prof Higgs said: "I will probably go
and open a bottle of Champagne for a start to celebrate. It will
certainly have an impact on my life I think."
A sculpture of Prof Higgs' handprints will be
unveiled in the City Chambers quadrangle, where they have been
engraved in Caithness stone alongside those of the previous
Edinburgh Award recipients.
Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2012, All
Rights Reserved.
Source
http://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/news/scottish-headlines/edinburgh_honour_for_prof_higgs_82_1_2137647
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