15.05.2013

ATLAS and CMS receive prestigious prize from the European Physical Society

The High Energy and Particle Physics Prize 2013 of the European Physical Society goes to the research teams of the ATLAS and CMS particle physics experiments.Together with the three experimental physicists, Michel Della Negra (Imperial College London), Peter Jenni (CERN and University of Freiburg) and Tejinder Virdee (Imperial College London) the collaborations are awarded for the discovery of a new heavy particle with the properties of the long-sought Higgs particle.

A Higgs event in the CMS detector.

In 2012, the international teams of ATLAS and CMS announced the discovery of a Higgs particle. With the help of the corresponding Higgs mechanism, particle physicists are able to explain how particles get their mass. The detection of this particle is the first major discovery at the world’s largest particle accelerator LHC and at the same time the beginning of research in a so far unprecedented energy range.

“DESY is one of the largest institutions participating in the LHC experiments ATLAS and CMS and one of the few institutes in the world contributing to both experiments. We are very honoured and glad to receive this renowned research prize from the European Physical Society,” says Professor Joachim Mnich, DESY Director in charge of particle and astroparticle physics.

The High Energy and Particle Physics Prize is awarded for outstanding contributions to high energy physics. It will be presented on 22 July at the EPSHEP 2013 conference in Stockholm.

In total, more than 700 German scientists are participating in the LHC experiments ATLAS and CMS, including 400 young scientists.150 DESY scientists do research at both experiments and DESY operates completely equipped control rooms for both of these huge particle detectors.

Website EPS Prize

Scientists in the ATLAS Remote Centre at DESY in Zeuthen.