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Brunel physicists celebrate Nobel Prize award for Higgs Boson scientists

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The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics to Peter Higgs, from the UK, and Francois Englert from Belgium, for their work on the theory behind the discovery of the Higgs Boson. 

Physicists at Brunel University are delighted to have been associated since 1995 in the construction and use of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) particle detector, which, with its friendly rival ATLAS, helped to discover the long-sought Boson earlier this year.

Brunel has been involved primarily with the design, construction and operation of the endcap electromagnetic calorimeter, which measures the energies of electrons and photons, and also of the central tracking detector which uses over 200 square metres of silicon to measure the momentum of charged particles in a 3.8T magnetic field.

Professor Peter Hobson leads Brunel's CMS group, which comprises Dr Jo Cole, Professor Akram Khan, Dr Paul Kyberd, Dr Dawn Leslie, Dr Raul Lopes, Dr Roger Powell, Dr Ivan Reid, Mr Chris Selby, Dr Liliana Teodorescu and several PhD students. The team's work is supported by funds from the UK STFC.