Peter (Ware) Higgs

Theoretical physicist, born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE England, UK. He studied at Kings College London, and between 1954 and 1960 held posts at the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London, and University College London. In 1960 he returned to Edinburgh as lecturer in mathematical physics, becoming professor of theoretical physics (1980–96). He is best known for the Higgs particle, predicted via the Higgs mechanism (1964), which is a generalization of ideas developed by Philip Anderson in the context of condensed matter physics, especially superconductivity, to relativistic quantum field theory.

Peter Ware Higgs (born May 29, 1929), FRSE, FRS, until recently held a personal chair in theoretical physics at the University of Edinburgh and is now an emeritus professor.

Higgs is best known for his 1960s proposal of broken symmetry in electroweak theory, explaining the origin of mass of elementary particles in general and of the W and Z bosons in particular. Although this particle has not turned up in accelerator experiments so far, the Higgs mechanism is generally accepted as an important ingredient in the Standard Model of particle physics.

Peter Higgs has been awarded a number of prizes in recognition of his work, including the Dirac Medal and Prize for outstanding contributions to theoretical physics from the Institute of Physics, the 1997 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize by the European Physical Society, and the 2004 Wolf Prize in Physics.