http://www.jpost.com/International/Tel-Aviv-U-affiliated-prof-and-Holocaust-survivor-shares-Nobel-for-physics-328171 Tel Aviv U. affiliated prof. who is a Holocaust survivor wins Nobel for physics
By DANIELLE ZIRI, REUTERS
LAST UPDATED: 10/08/2013 20:10
Francois Englert of Belgium shares prize for his role in the discovery of the "God particle" with Peter Higgs.
Scientists explain search for Higgs boson particle
Scientists explain search for Higgs boson particle Photo: REUTERS
Tel Aviv University Professor Francois Englert won the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday, along with his research partner Peter Higgs for predicting the existence of the Higgs boson particle that explains how elementary matter attained the mass to form stars and planets.
Englert, a Belgian Jew, 80-year-old Holocaust survivor and husband to an Israeli woman, is a professor emeritus at the Free University of Brussels and has had strong research ties with TAU for the past thirty years.
In 1984, Eglert was appointed as a fellow of the Mortimer and Raymond Sackler Institute of Advanced Studies, which was established as an instrument for promoting academic excellence at Tel Aviv University by inviting and hosting eminent experts in different academic fields from outside the University. He also holds a special status of Senior Professor at TAU’s School of Physics.
As a Sackler fellow, Englert was invited to the university for a period of two weeks last April and delivered a few lectures during his visit. In one of them, he presented students of TAU’s School of Physics with the work that won him Tuesday’s Nobel Prize, a discovery which was hailed as one of the most important in physics
To find the elusive particle, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider had to pore over data from the wreckage of trillions of sub-atomic proton collisions.
The Higgs boson is the last piece of the Standard Model of physics that describes the fundamental make-up of the universe. Some commentators - though not scientists - have called it the "God particle", for its role in turning the Big Bang into an ordered cosmos.
Higgs' and Englert's work, which was developed at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, shows how elementary particles inside atoms gain mass by interacting with an invisible field pervading all of space - and the more they interact, the heavier they become. The particle associated with the field is the Higgs boson.
“I’m thrilled that this year’s Nobel prize has gone to particle physics,” CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer said in a statement.
He also added that Englert and Higgs’ discovery “marks the culmination of decades of intellectual effort by many people around the world.”
Asked how it felt to be a Nobel winner, Englert told Reuters: "You may imagine that this is not very unpleasant, of course. I am very, very happy to have the recognition of this extraordinary award."
Professor Shimon Yankielowicz of TAU’s School of Physics, a colleague and close friend of Englert told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that he is “thrilled and proud” of Englert’s win.
“It is a tribute to our School of Physics at TAU that someone of the stature of Professor Englert is willing to be associated with as a Sackler Professor,” he said, "The Sackler Program was created to promote and encourage scientific collaboration between the best and leading scientists and scholars worldwide and researchers in TAU.”
“The fact that we manage to attract to this program leading scientists who are willing to get the appointment at TAU, such as Professor Englert is a tribute to the strong scientific standing of the University at large and the School of Physics in particular,” Yankielowicz added.
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