The British scientist Peter Higgs and the Belgian physicist Francois Englert have been named winners of the 2013 edition of Nobel Prize in physics.
They took the prize for their work on the theory of the ˜Higgs boson™ which presents a mechanism to explain why the most basic building blocks of the Universe have mass.
“I am overwhelmed to receive this award and thank the Royal Swedish Academy,” the 84-year-old professor, Higgs, said in a statement released by the University of Edinburgh.
“I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research,” he added.
“Of course I’m happy,” said Englert while expressing his thanks to all those who helped him in his research.
Proposed in1960s, ˜Higgs boson™ theory was finally discovered in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, in Switzerland.
While the Nobel Prize in medicine was given to American scientists James Rothman, Randy Schekman and Thomas Sudhof on Monday, the physics prize was the second of this year’s Nobel awards to be announced.
The Iranian scholar and economist Mohammad Hashemi Pesaran is also among the nominees for the 2013 Nobel prize in economic sciences.
Born in 1946 in the Iranian city of Shiraz, Pesaran has penned over 20 titles on economics and released some 130 papers in international journals.
The economics prize, which was not among the original Nobel awards, was established by the Swedish central bank in 1968.
The prizes were established in 1896 by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel who stipulated in his last will and testament that his money be used to create a series of awards for those who confer the “greatest benefit on mankind” in physics, chemistry, peace, physiology or medicine, and literature. Each prize is worth 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million).
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Copyright: Press TV