Discoverer of the Higgs Boson Passes Away at 94

The University of Edinburgh announced that Peter Higgs, the physicist whose theory about an undiscovered particle in the universe transformed science, has passed away at the age of 94. The discovery of the 'Higgs boson' in 2012 at CERN near Geneva was widely acclaimed as the greatest scientific advancement regarding the universe and directed physics towards ideas that were once considered science fiction. The British scientist told Reuters at that time: 'For me, this is a confirmation of the work I did 48 years ago, and it is very satisfying to have its correctness proven.' The University of Edinburgh, where Higgs taught for many years, stated that he passed away peacefully at home on Monday, Farvardin 20, after a short illness. Professor Peter Mathieson, the university's vice-chancellor, described Peter Higgs as a brilliant scientist whose insight and imagination enriched human knowledge about the world. What became known as the 'Higgs boson' answered the mystery of how matter acquires mass through interactions with other massless fundamental particles and introduced the concept of interaction with the invisible 'Higgs field' that permeates space. The discovery of this interaction in 2013 brought the Nobel Prize in Physics to Higgs and Belgian François Englert. The discovery of the 'Higgs boson' completed the 'Standard Model,' but a full understanding of it still requires further research. The 'Higgs boson' allowed theorists to direct their attention to a vast portion of existence that remained unexplained, as well as theories such as the possibility of parallel universes. Higgs, who was an atheist, hated the nickname 'God particle' that journalists had given to his discovery. He had strong views on the morality of science and withdrew from the nuclear disarmament movement when it turned into a campaign against nuclear energy. In 1962, he married Judy Williamson, an American linguist and nuclear disarmament activist, who passed away in 2008. They had two sons.