Celebrating Higgs@10 with CERN Alumni
"As a layman I would now say… I think we have it."
A packed auditorium at CERN listens keenly
to the announcement from CMS and ATLAS
(Image: Maximilien Brice/CERN)
“It” was the Higgs boson, the almost-mythical entity that had put particle physics in the global spotlight, and the man proclaiming to be a mere layman was none other than CERN’s Director-General, Rolf Heuer. Heuer spoke in the Laboratory’s main auditorium on 4 July 2012, moments after the CMS and ATLAS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider announced the discovery of a new elementary particle, which we now know is a Higgs boson.
Ten years on, we mark the occasion and look forward to a bright future for Higgs research.
The centrepiece of the Higgs10 celebrations is a full-day scientific symposium in CERN’s main auditorium on 4 July.
This will celebrate the discovery, give an overview of what’s been learned since then, and take a look forward at what’s still to come.
On the eve of the symposium, there will be a public screening of the film Particle Fever at the Globe, followed by a discussion with CERN scientists and other symposium speakers.
Celebrate 10 years since this extraordinary achievement by learning more about the history that led up to it, the next steps in understanding the mysterious particle, and CERN’s role in this endeavour by following the “Higgs10” series.
In the coming weeks, tune in for our alumni Higgs@10series, in which we share your stories and your memories of the 2012 Higgs discovery.