This year's breakthrough discovery of a new boson thought to be the Higgs particle in experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, is garnering international awards of merit. Yuri Milner, a Russian philanthropist who deeply believes in the value of basic research, had created a Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation that awards several prizes of large value each year to recent discoveries. In 2013, the Selection Committee, foregoing the regular nomination process, announced laureates of two Special Fundamental Physics Prizes of $3,000,000 each:
(1) One to Stephen Hawking for his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes, and his deep contributions to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe.
(2) One to be shared by the leaders of the LHC project, CMS and ATLAS experiments from the time the LHC was approved by the CERN Council in 1994, including: Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti (ATLAS); Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Singh Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joe Incandela (CMS) and Lyn Evans (LHC) for their leadership role in the scientific endeavour that led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
Canadian particle-physicists were especially delighted with this recognition because of their role in leading the computing, analysis, and verification efforts of the pivotal July 4, 2012, announcement of the discovery.
All prizes will be funded by the Milner Foundation. "Choosing this year's recipients from such a large pool of spectacular nominations was a very difficult task," said Nima Arkani-Hamed, a member of the Selection Committee. "The selected physicists have done transformative work spanning a wide range of areas in fundamental physics.
I especially look forward to future breakthroughs from the first recipients of the New Horizons in Physics Prize."
"It is a great honour for the LHC's achievement to be recognised in this way," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer, "this prize recognizes the work of everyone who has contributed to the project over many years. The Fundamental Physics Prize underlines the value of fundamental physics to society, and I am delighted that the Foundation has chosen to hold its first award ceremony at CERN."
"I am very much pleased with the decisions of the Selection Committee," commented Yuri Milner. "I hope that the prizes will bring further recognition to some of the most brilliant minds in the world and the great accomplishments they have produced."
The Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to advancing our knowledge of the Universe at the deepest level by awarding annual prizes for scientific breakthroughs, as well as communicating the excitement of fundamental physics to the public.
Congratulations to these global teams for their accomplishments, and a special congratulations to the ATLAS Canada team for the acknowledgment of their efforts by this highyl acclaimed prize.
-- prepared from an InterActions.org press release