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CERN Prize for Siegen: University shines in Higgs boson research!
The University of Siegen receives recognition for its contribution to the ATLAS collaboration, which won the Breakthrough Prize in Physics.
CERN Prize for Siegen: University shines in Higgs boson research!
On April 4, 2025, the renowned “Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics” was awarded to four outstanding experiments at CERN, with the University of Siegen playing a significant role in this success. The $3 million award, often referred to as the “Oscar of science,” recognizes the impressive contributions to physics of the ATLAS, ALICE, CMS and LHCb collaborations. The award ceremony took place in Los Angeles, where a large number of scientists, including 13,508 international researchers, were honored who have made significant advances in particle physics.
The University of Siegen is not only part of the ATLAS collaboration, one of the award-winning large-scale experiments, but has been actively involved in this area for over 30 years. The university's scientists play a leading role in the development of detector components, make important contributions to calibration and data analysis, and train young talent. Students and doctoral candidates also regularly have the opportunity to work directly at CERN and gain valuable experience.
Importance of the ATLAS collaboration
The ATLAS collaboration receives the prize for its extensive research work on high-energy collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). One of the most significant achievements is the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, which laid the foundation for numerous scientific advances in particle physics. The award also recognizes the continuation of this groundbreaking work, which includes both the establishment of the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism and the precise verification of the Standard Model.
During the LHC's second operating cycle (Run 2) from 2015 to 2018, ATLAS made numerous significant upgrades, including the installation of the Insertable B-Layer (IBL), which ensures improved resolution of the inner tracking detector. These technologies have enabled the observation of rare particle interactions and the publication of 408 scientific papers. Among other things, the collaboration discovered the production of four top quarks and carried out extensive investigations into new particles and phenomena.
Looking into the future
In the decade since the Higgs boson was discovered at the LHC, physicists have made significant progress in understanding the universe. The properties of the Higgs boson have been confirmed with high precision and new research perspectives continue to emerge. The new duration of the LHC, Run 3, as well as the planned high-luminosity LHC, which is expected to provide up to ten times more data by 2041, will aim to provide further answers to central questions about the Higgs field and elementary particles.
In addition, the University of Siegen is actively involved in the “Color meets Flavor” cluster of excellence, in collaboration with the universities of Bonn and Dortmund and the Research Center Jülich. This cluster aims to intensify interdisciplinary collaboration in North Rhine-Westphalia and enable further progress in research.
Overall, the award for the ATLAS collaboration is impressive evidence of the innovative strength and international collaboration in elementary particle physics, as well as by uni-siegen.de, cern.ch and home.web.cern.ch reported. These developments are not only receiving great attention in scientific communities, but also have far-reaching societal impacts through technological innovations.