Global LHC Collaborations Garner Prestigious Physics Award, Empowering Future Scientific Pioneers

Global LHC Collaborations Garner Prestigious Physics Award, Empowering Future Scientific Pioneers

(IN BRIEF) The ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb collaborations at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider were awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics during a Los Angeles ceremony on April 5. This prize acknowledges the collective research efforts of thousands of scientists from more than 70 countries, particularly focusing on data from LHC Run-2 up to July 2024. The accolade honors a broad range of scientific accomplishments including precise measurements of Higgs boson properties that validate the symmetry-breaking mechanism of mass generation, the discovery of new particles, and detailed studies of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry. Additionally, it recognizes the advanced research into the extreme conditions and shortest distance scales explored at CERN. The prize money of $3 million will be donated to the CERN & Society Foundation to fund grants for doctoral students, enabling them to gain hands-on research experience at CERN. Key figures such as Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of CERN, and spokespersons from ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb have highlighted the monumental efforts and scientific breakthroughs achieved by their teams. The award not only celebrates past achievements but also supports future research and the training of upcoming scientists, reinforcing the continuous quest to unravel the mysteries of the universe. The upcoming High-Luminosity LHC upgrade, scheduled for 2030, promises to further enhance these explorations.

(PRESS RELEASE) GENEVA, 7-Apr-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — During a ceremony held in Los Angeles on April 5, the ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb collaborations were honored with the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. This accolade celebrates the collective efforts of thousands of researchers from over 70 countries, whose work during LHC Run-2 (up to July 2024) has significantly advanced our understanding of particle physics. The prize, received by the spokespersons of each collaboration, recognizes the collaborations’ comprehensive studies—ranging from the precise measurement of Higgs boson properties that confirm the mechanism of mass generation through symmetry breaking, to the discovery of novel strongly interacting particles, the investigation of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the probing of nature under the most extreme conditions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

Fabiola Gianotti, CERN’s Director-General, expressed her pride in the groundbreaking achievements of the LHC collaborations, highlighting their relentless pursuit of scientific excellence and their collective effort that pushes the boundaries of human knowledge. In a significant decision, and after thorough consultations with the experiments’ management teams, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation announced that the $3 million prize would be donated to the CERN & Society Foundation. These funds are designated to provide grants for doctoral students affiliated with the member institutes of the collaborations, facilitating their research time at CERN and enriching their expertise to benefit their home countries.

Both ATLAS and CMS, known as general-purpose experiments, play a crucial role in exploring the full potential of high-energy and high-intensity proton and ion beams from the LHC. Their joint discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 remains a monumental achievement, and both collaborations continue to delve deeper into its properties. ATLAS spokesperson Stephane Willocq emphasized that the prize honors the vision and tireless effort of thousands of global collaborators whose dedication, coupled with robust support from public funding agencies, has led to transformative scientific breakthroughs. Similarly, CMS spokesperson Gautier Hamel de Monchenault shared the pride of the CMS team in advancing our understanding of the electroweak scale and the primordial state of nuclear matter, achieved through years of innovative data exploitation at the LHC.

In addition, the ALICE collaboration, led by spokesperson Marco Van Leeuwen, is celebrated for its in-depth studies of quark-gluon plasma—the extremely hot and dense matter that prevailed just microseconds after the Big Bang. ALICE’s work, now further supported by new doctoral grants, is set to nurture the next generation of scientists. Meanwhile, LHCb, with spokesperson Vincenzo Vagnoni, has been recognized for its meticulous measurements in flavour physics and spectroscopy, including its investigations into matter-antimatter discrepancies and the discovery of new heavy quark hadrons. These precise tests have enabled the experiments to extend the frontiers of fundamental physics, a pursuit that will continue with the planned High-Luminosity LHC upgrade in 2030, aimed at significantly boosting the LHC’s discovery potential.

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SOURCE: CERN