François Englert’s work paved the way for the groundbreaking discovery of the Higgs boson, offering an explanation for how particles acquire mass and addressing one of physics’ deepest mysteries.
On July 4, 2012, a large crowd of scientists gathered at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, to hear the results of two significant experiments aimed at detecting the Higgs boson. This particle, vital to the field of physics, had earned the nickname “the God particle” due to its importance. Detecting this elusive particle confirmed the presence of a field responsible for giving mass to other particles like electrons and quarks.
Rolf-Dieter Heuer, then director general of CERN, announced, “I think we have it,” to intense applause from those present. Among the audience was Peter Higgs, the English scientist credited with naming the particle. Emotional at this historic moment, he sat beside François Englert, the Belgian physicist who played a crucial role in developing the theory of the Higgs field. This field became a vital component of the Standard Model of particle physics, a framework from the 1970s categorizing all known fundamental particles and forces, and recognized as one of science’s major accomplishments.
In 2013, a year after CERN’s announcement, Dr. Higgs and Dr. Englert received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Their award recognized their theoretical innovation, which enhanced understanding of the mass origin of subatomic particles.
Dr. Englert passed away on Thursday in Uccle, Belgium, a suburb of Brussels, at the age of 93. CERN announced his death via its website.
During the late 1950s, Dr. Englert was a research associate at Cornell University, collaborating with Robert Brout, a theoretical physicist. Together, they were inspired by the work of Yoichiro Nambu, a Japanese American physicist, who had tackled the issue of symmetry breaking in certain subatomic reactions, a problem puzzling physicists at the time.