Moments from the Archives: An Elementary Conversation

In March 2013, Professor Peter Higgs and CERN were awarded the prestigious Edinburgh Medal at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, a few months before Professor Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics - and the first time in its 25 year history that the prestigious Edinburgh Medal was awarded jointly.

In 2012 the world awoke to the news that CERN’s Large Hadron Collider had detected the existence of an elusive, sub atomic particle consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson. 

Professor Peter Higgs, the Edinburgh scientist, was one of the first to suggest the existence of the particle that now bears his name. He came up with the revolutionary idea in the 1960s when he wanted to explain why the basic building blocks of the Universe - atoms - have mass.

His orignal theory about what binds the Universe together - which struggled to find a place in scientific journals because few understood it - was finally published in 1964 and sparked a 50-year search for the Holy Grail of physics. This search, for what became known as the 'God particle' - a term objected to by scientists because they say religion has no role to play in evidence-based physics - became the collaborative work of countless scientists. 

Professor Higgs retired from the University of Edinburgh in 2006, but he continued to watch developments at Cern in Geneva, where scientists were using the Large Hadron Collider to look for the Higgs boson. In 2012 an advance notice was sent: "Peter should come to the CERN seminar or he will regret it." He changed travel plans to visit Geneva for the stunning announcement. Following the discovery, Professor Higgs - a famously shy man - told journalists: "It's very nice to be right sometimes."

In acknowledgement of the fact that science is a collective endeavour and in celebration of the spirit of collaboration, the Edinburgh Medal was awarded to both Professor Higgs and CERN, the world class organisation who led the quest.

The Edinburgh Medal is a prestigious award given each year to men and women of science and technology whose professional achievements are judged to have made a significant contribution to the understanding and well-being of humanity.  The Medal, awarded at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, is supported by the City of Edinburgh Council.