Higgs@10 - Alumni Memories with Alberto Ruiz Jimeno

CERN Alumnus: Alberto Ruiz Jimeno

Today: Working at the CMS experiment as researcher from the Cantabria Institute of Physics, of which he was one of the founders

What memories do you have from the 4 July 2012 announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson? 

"It was the most important day in my research career, which has been dedicated to the search for Higgs for more than 20 years. I was at CERN and tried to come to the amphitheatre, but it was impossible because people had been queuing from the previous night. Anyway it was very exciting to be at CERN. We celebrated the event with champagne. Also it was very exciting to speak directly with Francois Englert on the cafeteria terrasse, on the day of the announcement"

What is your best memory of working at CERN? 

"My best memory was working at LEP, in the DELPHI experiment, and contributing to the establishment of the Z boson properties, mass and width particularly, as well as tau physics."

What skills did you develop during your CERN work experience which have been particularly useful in your subsequent career trajectory? 

"My career trajectory started at CERN , working on new silicon developments to mix silicon telescopes with emulsion detectors to detect beauty composed particles.  Although it did not give important physics results, due to the low effective section of beauty production (not theoretically foreseen), it led to the development of silicon detectors, which became of great importance later on.
The skills I acquired during my time as convenor of the tau physics group in the DELPHI experiment, proved to play a very important role in my later career."