Peter Higgs - Nobel Prize in Physics 2013

Biographical

Peter Higgs was born on 29 May 1929 in the Elswick district of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He graduated with First Class Honours in Physics from King’s College, University of London, in 1950. A year later, he was awarded an MSc and started research, initially under the supervision of Charles Coulson and, subsequently, Christopher Longuet-Higgins. In 1954, he was awarded a PhD for a thesis entitled ‘Some Problems in the Theory of Molecular Vibrations’, work which signalled the start of his life-long interest in the application of the ideas of symmetry to physical systems.

In 1954, Peter Higgs moved to the University of Edinburgh for his second year as a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Senior Student, and remained for a further year as a Senior Research Fellow. He returned to London in 1956 to take up an ICI Research Fellowship, spending a year at University College and a little over a year at Imperial College, before taking up an appointment as Temporary Lecturer in Mathematics at University College. In October 1960 Peter Higgs returned to Edinburgh, taking up a lectureship in Mathematical Physics at the Tait Institute. He was promoted to Reader in 1970, became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1974 and was promoted to a Personal Chair of Theoretical Physics in 1980. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1983 and Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 1991. He retired in 1996, becoming Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh. He was awarded Fellowship of the University of Swansea in 2008, Honorary Membership of the Saltire Society and Fellowships of the Royal Scottish Society of the Arts and the Science Museum London in 2013.

Peter Higgs’ contribution to physics has been recognised by numerous academic honours: the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society (1981, shared with Tom Kibble), the Rutherford Medal of the Institute of Physics (1984, also shared with Tom Kibble), the Saltire Society & Royal Bank of Scotland Scottish Science Award (1990), the Royal Society of Edinburgh James Scott Prize Lectureship (1993), the Paul Dirac Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics (1997), and the High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society (1997, shared with Robert Brout and François Englert), the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2000), the Wolf Prize in Physics (2004, shared with Robert Brout and François Englert), the Stockholm Academy of Sciences Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture and Medal (2009) and the American Physical Society J. J. Sakurai Prize (2010), shared with Robert Brout, François Englert, Gerry Guralnik, Carl Hagen and Tom Kibble. He received a unique personal Higgs medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 1 October 2012 and the 2013 Nonino Prize ‘Man of Our Time’. He shared the award of the 2013 Edinburgh International Science Festival Edinburgh Medal with CERN and the 2013 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research with François Englert and CERN.

He has received honorary degrees from the Universities of Bristol (1997), Edinburgh (1998), Glasgow (2002), King’s College London (2009), University College London (2010), Cambridge (2012), Heriot-Watt (2012), Manchester, (2013), Durham (2013), La Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avantzi di Trieste (2013), St. Andrews (2014) and the Université Libre de Bruxelles (2014).

In 2011 he was awarded the Edinburgh Award for his outstanding contribution to the city. In the 2013 New Year Honours List he was appointed a Companion of Honour. In 2013 he was granted the Freedom of the City of Bristol. In 2014 he was awarded the Freedom of the City of Newcastle, his birthplace and the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh.

Prizes

• Hughes Medal, Royal Society (with T. W. B. Kibble), 1981
• Rutherford Medal, Institute of Physics (with T. W. B. Kibble), 1984
• Scottish Science Award, Saltire Society and Royal Bank of Scotland, 1990
• James Scott Prize Lectureship, Royal Society of Edinburgh (delivered April 1995), 1993
• Paul Dirac Medal and Prize, Institute of Physics, 1997
• High Energy and Particle Physics Prize, European Physical Society (with R. Brout, F. Englert), 1997
• Royal Medal, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2000
• Wolf Prize in Physics (with R. Brout and F. Englert), 2004
• Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture and Medal, Stockholm Academy of Sciences, 2009
• J. J. Sakurai Prize, American Physical Society (with R. Brout, F. Englert, G. S. Guralnik, C. R. Hagen and T. W. B. Kibble), 2010
• Higgs Medal, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2012
• Nonino ‘Man of Our Time’ Prize, 2013
• Edinburgh Medal of the Edinburgh International Science Festival (with CERN), 2013
• Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Researchl (with F. Englert and CERN), 2013
• Nobel Prize in Physics (with F. Englert), 2013