Physics topic timeline

Particle Physics Timeline

Records in the Physics collection relating to particles, particle theory, accelerators, colliders and experimental particle physics.

170 records1602–2026

About this Particle Physics timeline

Explore the discovery and theory of subatomic particles, accelerators, colliders and the experimental development of particle physics.

This page contains 170 records spanning 1602–2026. Frequently represented countries include Great Britain, Italy, United States of America, Germany, Belgium. Example event labels include Law of Chords, Discovery of Electrons, Electron Theory of Matter, Zeeman Effect and Charged Oscillators, Cathode-Ray Charge-to-Mass Ratio.

Physicists frequently represented in these records

Fabiola Gianotti19 matching records Peter Ware Higgs18 matching records Enrico Fermi16 matching records Rolf-Dieter Heuer9 matching records Francois Englert7 matching records Robert Brout5 matching records

Timeline records

Date	Person	Event	Place	Description
19 November 1602	Galileo Galilei	Law of Chords	Italy	In the same letter, Galileo formulates the law of chords concerning descent times along chords of a vertical circle.
1838	Richard Laming	Discovery of Electrons	Great Britain	Between 1838 and 1851, British natural philosopher Richard Laming developed the idea that an atom is composed of a core of matter surrounded by subatomic particles that had unit electric charge
1892	Hendrik Antoon Lorentz Physicist	Electron Theory of Matter	Leiden, Netherlands	Develops an electrodynamic theory in which charged microscopic particles account for electrical and optical behaviour in matter.
1896	Pieter Zeeman Physicist	Zeeman Effect and Charged Oscillators	Leiden, Netherlands	Finds that magnetic fields split spectral lines, providing evidence for charged particles participating in atomic radiation.
1897	Joseph John Thomson Physicist	Cathode-Ray Charge-to-Mass Ratio	Cambridge, Great Britain	Measures the charge-to-mass ratio of cathode-ray particles and shows they are far lighter than atoms.
1897	Emil Wiechert Physicist	Cathode Ray Charge-to-Mass Ratio	Konigsberg, Germany	Measures a very small mass-to-charge ratio for cathode-ray particles, evidence that they are much lighter than atoms.
1897	Emil Wiechert Physicist	Cathode-Ray Charge-to-Mass Measurement	Konigsberg, Germany	Obtains an early charge-to-mass estimate for cathode-ray particles, supporting their subatomic character.
1899	Philipp Lenard Physicist	Cathode-Ray Absorption Studies	Kiel, Germany	Studies how cathode rays penetrate matter and helps establish their particle-like behaviour.
1900	Paul Drude Physicist	Electron Theory of Metals	Leipzig, Germany	Models conduction in metals as the motion of mobile charged particles and lays foundations for the classical electron theory of conductivity.
1909	Albert Einstein Physicist	Salzburg Quantum Lecture	Salzburg, Switzerland	Presents a major lecture arguing that radiation displays both wave-like and particle-like properties.
30 October 1911	Arnold Sommerfeld Theoretical Physicist	Quantum Physics Discussions	Brussels, Germany	Contributes to discussions concerning emerging quantum concepts.
10 December 1911	Wilhelm Wien Professor of Physics	Heat Radiation Recognition	Stockholm, Germany	Is honored for foundational discoveries concerning black-body heat radiation.
1911	Wilhelm Wien Physicist	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Germany	Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries concerning the laws governing thermal radiation, including the displacement law bearing his name.
1912	Charles Thomson Rees Wilson Physicist	Cloud Chamber Particle Tracks	Cambridge, Great Britain	Photographs tracks made by charged particles in a cloud chamber.
1919	Ernest Rutherford Physicist	Proton as Nuclear Charge Carrier	Cambridge, Great Britain	Identifies the hydrogen nucleus as a fundamental positive particle, helping connect atomic number with the positive charge of the atomic nucleus.
3 June 1920	Ernest Rutherford Physicist	Neutral Nuclear Particle Proposal	Cambridge, New Zealand	Suggests that a neutral proton-electron combination could exist inside atomic nuclei, anticipating the neutron.
1924	Louis Victor de Broglie Theoretical Physicist	Matter Waves	Paris, France	Proposes that material particles possess wave properties.
1924	Albert Einstein Physicist	Bose-Einstein Condensation Prediction	Berlin, Germany	Predicts that ideal bosonic particles can accumulate in the lowest quantum state at low temperature.
1924	Albert Einstein Physicist	Bose-Einstein Statistics	Berlin, Germany	Extends Bose's statistical method from photons to particles of an ideal gas.
1924	Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger Professor	Quantum Statistics Research	Zurich, Austria	Begins intensive work on quantum statistics and the statistical behaviour of particles, helping redirect his research toward quantum foundations.
1926	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Fermi Gas Theory	Florence, Italy	Applies his new statistics to an ideal gas of particles subject to the Pauli exclusion principle and establishes the theoretical basis of a degenerate Fermi gas.
1926	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Fermi-Dirac Electron Statistics	Rome, Italy	Develops quantum statistics for indistinguishable particles obeying the Pauli exclusion principle, providing the statistical framework now known as Fermi-Dirac statistics.
1926	Oskar Benjamin Klein Theoretical Physicist	Klein-Gordon Equation	Copenhagen, Sweden	Co-develops a relativistic wave equation for spin-zero particles.
1926	Oskar Benjamin Klein Theoretical Physicist	Relativistic Wave Equation	Copenhagen, Sweden	Extends quantum wave mechanics to particles moving near light speed.
1927	Arthur Holly Compton Physicist	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, United States of America	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the change in wavelength that occurs when X-rays scatter from electrons, demonstrating the particle-like properties of radiation.
1927	Albert Einstein Physicist	Motion from Field Equations	Berlin, Germany	Investigates with Jakob Grommer whether particle motion can follow directly from gravitational field equations.
1927	Enrico Fermi Professor	Rome Physics Group Formation	Rome, Italy	Builds a collaborative group of young physicists in Rome that later becomes famous for major advances in nuclear and particle physics.
1927	Charles Thomson Rees Wilson Physicist	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Great Britain	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for developing the cloud-chamber method that makes the tracks of electrically charged particles visible.
1930	Herbert Becker Physicist	Beryllium Penetrating Radiation	Giessen, Germany	With Walther Bothe, detects penetrating radiation from beryllium bombarded by alpha particles.
1930	Walther Bothe Physicist	Beryllium Penetrating Radiation	Giessen, Germany	With Herbert Becker, observes unusually penetrating radiation when alpha particles strike beryllium.
27 February 1932	James Chadwick Physicist	Possible Existence of a Neutron	Cambridge, Great Britain	Publishes evidence that the penetrating beryllium radiation consists of neutral particles with roughly proton mass.
June 1932	James Chadwick Physicist	The Existence of a Neutron	Cambridge, Great Britain	Publishes a fuller experimental account establishing the neutron as a distinct nuclear particle.
1933	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Beta Decay Theory Development	Rome, Italy	Formulates the fundamental ideas of his beta-decay theory by combining quantum field concepts with Wolfgang Pauli's neutrino hypothesis.
1934	Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov Physicist	Cherenkov Radiation	Moscow, Russia	Observes blue light emitted when charged particles move rapidly through a medium.
1934	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Beta Decay Electron Theory	Rome, Italy	Develops a quantitative theory of beta decay in which an electron and a neutrino are created during a weak nuclear transformation.
1935	James Chadwick Physicist	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Great Britain	Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the neutron, a neutral nuclear particle fundamental to understanding atomic nuclei.
1936	Niels Henrik David Bohr Theoretical Physicist	Compound Nucleus Model	Copenhagen, Denmark	Proposes that an incoming particle forms a temporary compound nucleus.
1937	Carl David Anderson	Discovery of Meson Particles	United States of America	Discovers the meson muon particle
1937	Marietta Blau Nuclear Physicist	Photographic Nuclear Emulsions	Hafelekar, Austria	Demonstrates a powerful photographic method for detecting high-energy particle interactions.
1938	Enrico Fermi	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Italy	Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating neutron-induced radioactivity and for discoveries concerning nuclear reactions produced by slow neutrons.
1940	Bibha Chowdhuri Physicist	Cosmic Ray Tracks	Darjeeling, India	Bibha Chowdhuri works with D. M. Bose using photographic plates at high altitude to study charged particles in cosmic rays.
1941	Bibha Chowdhuri Physicist	Meson Measurements	Darjeeling, India	Bibha Chowdhuri and D. M. Bose publish measurements of cosmic-ray particle tracks that provide early evidence for particles of meson-like mass.
1944	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Los Alamos F Division Leadership	Los Alamos, United States of America	Leads a Los Alamos division concerned with advanced theoretical and experimental problems related to neutron physics and weapon development.
1945	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Interim Committee Scientific Panel	Washington, United States of America	Serves on the scientific panel advising the Interim Committee on issues concerning the wartime use and postwar implications of atomic energy.
1945	Cecil Frank Powell Physicist	Nuclear Emulsion Research	Bristol, Great Britain	Powell develops particle physics research at the University of Bristol.
1946	Enrico Fermi Professor	Postwar Nuclear Physics Programme	Chicago, United States of America	Establishes an energetic postwar research programme at Chicago spanning nuclear physics, particle physics and theoretical problems.
1947	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Cosmic Ray Research	Chicago, United States of America	Studies high-energy cosmic-ray interactions and develops theoretical models for how energetic particles produce secondary particles in the atmosphere.
1948	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Particle Acceleration Theory	Chicago, United States of America	Develops ideas explaining how charged particles can gain energy through repeated interactions with moving magnetic fields in astrophysical environments.
1949	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Fermi Acceleration Mechanism	Chicago, United States of America	Publishes a theory of stochastic particle acceleration that later becomes known as second-order Fermi acceleration.
1950	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Pion Nucleon Scattering Research	Chicago, United States of America	Uses the Chicago cyclotron to investigate pion-nucleon interactions and helps establish important experimental results in emerging particle physics.
1951	Enrico Fermi Physicist	High Energy Particle Experiments	Chicago, United States of America	Continues high-energy experiments with mesons and nucleons, combining rapid estimates with detailed measurements to test models of particle interactions.
1953	Aage Niels Bohr Nuclear Physicist	Collective Nuclear Model	Copenhagen, Denmark	Co-develops a model combining individual particles with collective nuclear motion.
1953	Enrico Fermi Professor	Final Chicago Research Programme	Chicago, United States of America	Continues teaching and conducting research at the University of Chicago while advising younger physicists on nuclear and particle physics problems.
1954	Enrico Fermi Physicist	Legacy in Nuclear and Particle Physics	Chicago, United States of America	Leaves a scientific legacy spanning quantum statistics, beta decay, neutron physics, controlled chain reactions, particle acceleration and high-energy physics.
1956	Lev Davidovich Landau Physicist	Fermi Liquid Theory of Electrons	Moscow, Russia	Develops the Fermi-liquid description of interacting electrons in metals as long-lived quasiparticles near the Fermi surface.
1962	Ennackal Chandy George Sudarshan Physicist	Faster-than-light Particles	United States, India	E. C. G. Sudarshan and collaborators publish a theoretical analysis showing how hypothetical faster-than-light particles can fit within special relativity.
1963	Eugene Paul Wigner	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, United States of America	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for contributions to nuclear and particle theory, especially symmetry principles.
31 August 1964	Robert Brout Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Brussels, Belgium	Coauthors with Francois Englert the Physical Review Letters paper Broken Symmetry and the Mass of Gauge Vector Mesons.
31 August 1964	Francois Englert Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Brussels, Belgium	Publishes with Robert Brout the first 1964 gauge-symmetry paper establishing a mechanism by which gauge vector bosons can acquire mass.
19 October 1964	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Edinburgh, Great Britain	Publishes Broken Symmetries and the Masses of Gauge Bosons, explicitly identifying the massive scalar excitation later called the Higgs boson.
19 October 1964	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Edinburgh, Great Britain	Shows that spontaneous symmetry breaking in a gauge theory can avoid an unwanted massless particle while leaving a massive scalar particle in the theory.
16 November 1964	Gerald Guralnik Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	London, Great Britain	Coauthors a third independent 1964 paper explaining spontaneous symmetry breaking in relativistic gauge theory and the generation of gauge-boson masses.
16 November 1964	Carl Richard Hagen Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	London, Great Britain	Publishes with Gerald Guralnik and Tom Kibble an independent formulation of the gauge-symmetry-breaking mechanism.
16 November 1964	Tom Kibble Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	London, Great Britain	Coauthors Global Conservation Laws and Massless Particles, completing one of the independent 1964 formulations associated with the Higgs mechanism.
1964	Robert Brout Theoretical Physicist	Gauge Symmetry	Brussels, Belgium	Develops with Francois Englert a mechanism in which spontaneous symmetry breaking gives mass to gauge vector particles without abandoning local gauge symmetry.
1964	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Scalar Boson Prediction	Edinburgh, Great Britain	Develops the consequence that the symmetry-breaking mechanism should leave a massive scalar particle that could in principle be detected experimentally.
1964	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Symmetry Breaking Paper	Edinburgh, Great Britain	Publishes a short paper on broken symmetries that identifies a loophole allowing gauge theories to evade the usual massless-particle conclusion.
1964	Jayant Vishnu Narlikar Astrophysicist	Hoyle-Narlikar Gravity	Cambridge, India	Jayant Narlikar and Fred Hoyle publish a new Machian theory of gravitation based on direct particle interactions.
20 November 1967	Steven Weinberg Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America	Uses spontaneous symmetry breaking in A Model of Leptons to construct a unified electroweak theory incorporating a Higgs-type scalar field.
1968	Brandon Carter Physicist	Carter Constant	Australia	Shows that particle motion in Kerr spacetime is separable and identifies the additional conserved quantity now called the Carter constant.
1968	Abdus Salam Theoretical Physicist	Electroweak Theory	London, Pakistan	Formulates the electroweak gauge theory independently along lines closely related to Steven Weinberg's model, using spontaneous symmetry breaking to generate weak-boson masses.
1968	Abdus Salam Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	London, Pakistan	Presents an electroweak gauge theory in which spontaneous symmetry breaking supplies masses to weak force carriers while preserving the underlying gauge structure.
1969	Steven Weinberg Theoretical Physicist	MIT Appointment	Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America	Joins the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty and continues research in particle theory.
10 December 1970	Hannes Olof Gosta Alfven Plasma Physicist	Magnetohydrodynamics Recognition	Stockholm, Sweden	Is recognized for discoveries concerning plasma and magnetic-field interactions.
1971	Gerardus 't Hooft Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Utrecht, Netherlands	Demonstrates the renormalizability of spontaneously broken gauge theories, helping establish the mathematical consistency needed for the electroweak Higgs mechanism.
December 1973	Leo Esaki Physicist	Nobel Prize for Electron Tunnelling	Stockholm, Japan	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for experimental discoveries concerning tunnelling in semiconductors.
December 1973	Ivar Giaever Physicist	Nobel Prize for Superconducting Tunnelling	Stockholm, Norway	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for experimental discoveries concerning tunnelling in superconductors.
1973	Abdus Salam Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Trieste, Pakistan	Sees the discovery of weak neutral currents provide major experimental support for the electroweak framework in which the Higgs mechanism operates.
1973	Steven Weinberg Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America	Sees neutral-current observations strengthen the electroweak theory that he had formulated using spontaneous symmetry breaking.
November 1974	Samuel Ting Physicist	J-Psi Discovery	Brookhaven, United States of America	Leads the team that discovers the J/psi particle using high-energy particle interactions.
1974	Burton Richter Physicist	Electron-Positron J-Psi Discovery	Stanford, United States of America	Leads the SPEAR electron-positron collider team that discovers the J-psi particle, demonstrating the power of lepton colliders for particle physics.
15 January 1976	Don Page Physicist	Black Hole Particle Emission	Canada	Calculates emission rates for massless particles from an uncharged, nonrotating black hole using Hawking radiation and black hole perturbation theory.
15 August 1976	William Unruh Physicist	Notes on Black-Hole Evaporation	Canada	Analyzes black hole evaporation and shows the close relation between particle detection by accelerated observers and quantum effects near event horizons.
December 1976	Samuel Ting Physicist	Nobel Prize for J-Psi Discovery	Stockholm, United States of America	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery of a new kind of heavy elementary particle.
15 October 1977	Don Page Physicist	Charged Lepton Emission	Canada	Calculates Hawking emission of electrons and muons from a nonrotating black hole and analyzes fluctuations in the hole's electric charge.
10 December 1979	Abdus Salam Theoretical Physicist · Nobel Laureate	Higgs Boson	Stockholm, Pakistan	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for electroweak unification, the theory whose massive weak bosons depend on spontaneous gauge-symmetry breaking.
10 December 1979	Steven Weinberg Theoretical Physicist · Nobel Laureate	Higgs Boson	Stockholm, United States of America	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for the electroweak theory, which incorporates the symmetry-breaking mechanism later tested through Higgs-boson measurements.
1983	Carlo Rubbia Experimental Physicist	Higgs Boson	Geneva, Italy	Leads the UA1 collaboration as CERN experiments discover the W and Z bosons whose masses are explained within electroweak theory by the Higgs mechanism.
10 December 1984	Simon van der Meer	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Netherlands	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for decisive contributions enabling discovery of the W and Z particles.
10 December 1984	Carlo Rubbia	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Italy	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries leading to the W and Z particles, carriers of the weak interaction.
1989	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees CERN's LEP collider begin precision tests of electroweak theory and searches that increasingly constrain the possible mass of the Higgs boson.
16 December 1994	Hubert Curien Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Approval	Geneva, France	Chairs the CERN Council meeting that approves construction of the Large Hadron Collider by consensus.
16 December 1994	Christopher Llewellyn Smith Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Approval	Geneva, Great Britain	Welcomes CERN Council approval for construction of the Large Hadron Collider as the laboratory's next major high-energy physics project.
21 November 1996	Abdus Salam Theoretical Physicist	Death	Oxford, Pakistan	Dies in Oxford after a career combining fundamental particle physics with advocacy for scientific development in poorer countries.
20 December 1996	Hubert Curien Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Construction Plan	Geneva, France	Presides as CERN Council approves completing the Large Hadron Collider in a single construction stage rather than the original two-stage plan.
8 December 1997	Federico Pena Government Official	Large Hadron Collider International Participation	Geneva, United States of America	Signs an agreement establishing major United States participation in construction of the Large Hadron Collider and its experiments.
1997	Robert Brout Theoretical Physicist	European Physics Prize	Europe, Belgium	Shares the European Physical Society High Energy and Particle Physics Prize with Francois Englert and Peter Higgs.
1997	Francois Englert Theoretical Physicist	European Physics Prize	Europe, Belgium	Shares the European Physical Society High Energy and Particle Physics Prize with Robert Brout and Peter Higgs.
1997	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Dirac Medal	Great Britain, Great Britain	Receives the Institute of Physics Paul Dirac Medal and Prize for his contributions to theoretical particle physics.
1997	Anton Zeilinger Quantum Physicist	Teleportation of a Photon State	Innsbruck, Austria	Transfers an unknown photon state without transporting the original particle.
10 August 1998	Lionel Jospin Prime Minister	Large Hadron Collider Civil Engineering	France, France	Authorizes French civil-engineering work needed for Large Hadron Collider construction on the French side of the CERN site.
2000	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees the LEP collider finish operations without a confirmed Higgs discovery, leaving the particle as a central target for future collider experiments.
2004	Robert Brout Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Jerusalem, Belgium	Shares the Wolf Prize in Physics with Francois Englert and Peter Higgs for the theoretical mechanism underlying gauge-particle mass generation.
2004	Francois Englert Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Jerusalem, Belgium	Shares the Wolf Prize in Physics with Robert Brout and Peter Higgs for pioneering work on mass generation through broken gauge symmetry.
2004	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Jerusalem, Great Britain	Shares the Wolf Prize in Physics with Robert Brout and Francois Englert for pioneering work that established the mechanism of mass generation.
7 March 2005	Lyn Evans Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Magnet Installation	Geneva, Great Britain	Oversees the project as the first superconducting dipole magnet is lowered into the Large Hadron Collider tunnel.
25 August 2005	Lyn Evans Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Installation	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees major detector magnet milestones reached for ATLAS and CMS while installation of the Large Hadron Collider continues.
23 June 2006	Lyn Evans Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Start-Up Planning	Geneva, Great Britain	Reports plans for initial Large Hadron Collider collisions as accelerator and detector installation approaches its final commissioning phase.
22 June 2007	Robert Aymar Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Start-Up Schedule	Geneva, France	Announces a revised Large Hadron Collider start-up schedule after delays in installation and commissioning.
10 September 2008	Lyn Evans Physicist	Large Hadron Collider First Beam	Geneva, Great Britain	Leads the project as the first proton beam successfully circulates around the full 27-kilometre Large Hadron Collider ring.
19 September 2008	Lyn Evans Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Incident	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees an electrical connection failure cause serious damage in one Large Hadron Collider sector, forcing an extended repair programme.
21 October 2008	Robert Aymar Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Inauguration	Geneva, France	Participates in the official inauguration of the Large Hadron Collider following the successful circulation of its first beam.
20 November 2009	Rolf-Dieter Heuer Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Restart	Geneva, Germany	Sees proton beams circulate again in the Large Hadron Collider after repairs and consolidation following the 2008 incident.
30 November 2009	Rolf-Dieter Heuer Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Beam Energy Record	Geneva, Germany	Announces that the Large Hadron Collider has set a world record for particle-beam energy at 1.18 TeV per beam.
16 December 2009	Rolf-Dieter Heuer Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Collision Record	Geneva, Germany	Sees the Large Hadron Collider produce 2.36 TeV proton collisions, setting a new world record for collider energy.
30 March 2010	Rolf-Dieter Heuer Physicist	Large Hadron Collider High-Energy Collisions	Geneva, Germany	Welcomes the first Large Hadron Collider proton collisions at a total energy of 7 TeV, beginning sustained high-energy physics running.
13 October 2010	Steve Myers Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Luminosity	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees the Large Hadron Collider reach its 2010 luminosity target ahead of schedule during the first year of 7 TeV proton physics.
8 November 2010	Rolf-Dieter Heuer Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Lead Ions	Geneva, Germany	Sees lead-ion beams introduced into the Large Hadron Collider, opening a programme studying extremely hot and dense strongly interacting matter.
2010	Francois Englert Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Washington, Belgium	Shares the J. J. Sakurai Prize with five other theorists for elucidating spontaneous symmetry breaking and consistent vector-boson mass generation.
2010	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Washington, Great Britain	Shares the J. J. Sakurai Prize for work explaining spontaneous symmetry breaking in relativistic gauge theory.
22 April 2011	Rolf-Dieter Heuer Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Beam Intensity Record	Geneva, Germany	Announces that the Large Hadron Collider has surpassed the Tevatron's hadron-collider luminosity record, increasing its discovery potential.
2011	Steve Myers Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Operations	Geneva, Great Britain	Guides accelerator operations as the Large Hadron Collider substantially increases delivered collision data during its second year of proton running.
5 April 2012	Steve Myers Physicist	Large Hadron Collider 8 TeV Collisions	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees the Large Hadron Collider begin proton collisions at a total centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV.
4 July 2012	Robert Brout Theoretical Physicist	Experimental Confirmation	Geneva, Belgium	Receives posthumous scientific vindication when ATLAS and CMS announce a new particle consistent with the boson implied by the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism.
4 July 2012	Fabiola Gianotti Experimental Physicist	Higgs Boson	Geneva, Italy	Presents the ATLAS collaboration's evidence for a new particle near 125 GeV at CERN during the Higgs discovery seminar.
4 July 2012	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Higgs Boson Discovery	Geneva, Italy	Presents the ATLAS collaboration's evidence for a new particle near 125 GeV during CERN's Higgs boson discovery announcement.
4 July 2012	Rolf-Dieter Heuer Physicist · CERN Director-General	Higgs Boson	Geneva, Germany	As CERN Director-General, welcomes the ATLAS and CMS results announcing observation of a new particle consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson.
4 July 2012	Rolf-Dieter Heuer Physicist	Higgs Boson Discovery	Geneva, Germany	Announces that ATLAS and CMS have observed a new particle consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson.
4 July 2012	Peter Ware Higgs Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Higgs Result	Geneva, Great Britain	Witnesses CERN announce a new particle consistent with the boson predicted by the symmetry-breaking mechanism associated with his work.
4 July 2012	Joe Incandela Experimental Physicist	Higgs Boson	Geneva, United States of America	Presents the CMS collaboration's independent evidence for a new particle near 125 GeV during CERN's announcement of the discovery.
4 July 2012	Joe Incandela Physicist	Higgs Boson Discovery	Geneva, United States of America	Presents the CMS collaboration's independent evidence for a new particle near 125 GeV during CERN's Higgs boson discovery announcement.
28 September 2012	Steve Myers Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Data Target	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees the Large Hadron Collider reach its 2012 target of delivering 15 inverse femtobarns of data to ATLAS and CMS.
14 February 2013	Rolf-Dieter Heuer Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Run 1 Completion	Geneva, Germany	Marks the end of the Large Hadron Collider's first three-year running period before the machine enters its first long shutdown.
14 March 2013	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Higgs Boson Properties	Geneva, Italy	Sees additional ATLAS and CMS measurements strengthen the identification of the 2012 particle as a Higgs boson.
14 March 2013	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees CERN report that additional data support the new particle having spin zero and positive parity, strengthening its identification as a Higgs boson.
14 March 2013	Peter Ware Higgs Physicist	Higgs Boson Confirmation	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees CERN report that accumulating measurements increasingly support the new particle having the properties expected of a Higgs boson.
10 December 2013	Francois Englert Theoretical Physicist · Nobel Laureate	Higgs Boson	Stockholm, Belgium	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics after CERN measurements confirm a particle associated with the symmetry-breaking mechanism proposed in 1964.
2013	Francois Englert Theoretical Physicist	Prince of Asturias Award	Oviedo, Belgium	Shares the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research with Peter Higgs and CERN.
2013	François Englert	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Belgium	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for the theoretical discovery of the mechanism explaining the origin of mass of subatomic particles.
2013	Peter Higgs	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Great Britain	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for the theoretical discovery of the mechanism explaining the origin of mass of subatomic particles.
23 June 2014	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees CERN report stronger evidence that the Higgs boson decays directly to fermions, extending tests of how the Higgs field couples to matter particles.
2014	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Preparations	Geneva, Italy	Prepares for renewed high-energy physics as the Large Hadron Collider and its experiments approach the end of the first long shutdown.
14 July 2015	Guy Wilkinson Physicist	Pentaquark Discovery	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees the LHCb collaboration report structures interpreted as pentaquark states in decays recorded with Large Hadron Collider data.
25 November 2015	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Lead-Ion Collisions	Geneva, Italy	Sees the Large Hadron Collider begin lead-ion collisions at roughly twice the energy achieved in its previous heavy-ion programme.
2015	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Run 2	Geneva, Italy	Sees the Large Hadron Collider begin Run 2 with proton collisions at the new energy frontier of 13 TeV.
2015	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Copley Medal	London, Great Britain	Receives the Royal Society's Copley Medal for his fundamental contribution to particle physics.
2015	Takaaki Kajita	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Japan	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering neutrino oscillations, showing that neutrinos have mass.
2015	Arthur B. McDonald	Nobel Prize	Stockholm, Canada	Shares the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering neutrino oscillations, showing that neutrinos have mass.
11 July 2016	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Luminosity	Geneva, Italy	Sees Large Hadron Collider performance exceed expectations as ATLAS and CMS rapidly accumulate substantially more Run 2 collision data.
2016	Mike Lamont Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Operations	Geneva, Great Britain	Helps oversee accelerator performance as the Large Hadron Collider operates with more than two thousand proton bunches per beam.
2017	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Physics	Geneva, Italy	Sees Run 2 continue producing large proton-collision datasets for precision Standard Model measurements and searches for physics beyond it.
3 December 2018	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Run 2 Completion	Geneva, Italy	Marks the end of Large Hadron Collider Run 2 after four years of 13 TeV proton collisions and extensive heavy-ion running.
3 December 2018	Mike Lamont Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Long Shutdown 2	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees the Large Hadron Collider enter Long Shutdown 2 for major maintenance, consolidation and upgrades.
2018	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Higgs Bottom-Quark Decay	Geneva, Italy	Sees ATLAS and CMS report observation of Higgs boson decay into bottom quarks using Large Hadron Collider data.
2018	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees ATLAS and CMS report observation of Higgs-boson decay to bottom quarks, confirming an important predicted coupling to fermionic matter.
2019	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Upgrade	Geneva, Italy	Oversees CERN while accelerator teams begin extensive Long Shutdown 2 upgrades to the Large Hadron Collider and its injector chain.
2020	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Detector Upgrades	Geneva, Italy	Sees ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb continue major detector and data-acquisition upgrades in preparation for higher-rate Run 3 collisions.
23 July 2021	Steven Weinberg Theoretical Physicist	Death	Austin, United States of America	Dies in Austin after a career that reshaped particle physics, quantum field theory and modern cosmology.
2021	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Run 3 Preparations	Geneva, Italy	Oversees final preparations for restarting the Large Hadron Collider after the extended maintenance and upgrade programme.
22 April 2022	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Restart	Geneva, Italy	Sees proton beams circulate in the Large Hadron Collider again after more than three years of maintenance, consolidation and upgrades.
4 July 2022	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Higgs Boson Tenth Anniversary	Geneva, Italy	Marks ten years since the ATLAS and CMS collaborations announced the discovery of a Higgs boson using Large Hadron Collider data.
4 July 2022	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Higgs Boson	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees CERN mark ten years since the discovery with increasingly precise measurements supporting the Higgs boson's predicted spin-zero Standard Model properties.
4 July 2022	Peter Ware Higgs Physicist	Higgs Boson Tenth Anniversary	Geneva, Great Britain	Sees CERN commemorate ten years of increasingly precise measurements of the Higgs boson discovered with Large Hadron Collider data.
5 July 2022	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Record Energy	Geneva, Italy	Sees the Large Hadron Collider establish routine physics collisions at 13.6 TeV, the highest centre-of-mass energy then achieved by a collider.
5 July 2022	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Run 3	Geneva, Italy	Marks the start of Run 3 physics as the Large Hadron Collider delivers proton collisions at the record energy of 13.6 TeV.
2022	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Experiment Upgrades	Geneva, Italy	Sees upgraded ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb systems begin collecting larger and higher-quality Run 3 datasets.
2022	Joe Incandela Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Run 3	Geneva, United States of America	Sees CMS exploit rapidly accumulated 13.6 TeV collision data to produce early Run 3 measurements of top-quark pair production.
2023	Fabiola Gianotti Physicist	Large Hadron Collider Run 3 Physics	Geneva, Italy	Sees the Large Hadron Collider continue Run 3 measurements of Higgs physics, heavy flavours, heavy ions and precision Standard Model processes.
8 April 2024	Peter Ware Higgs Theoretical Physicist	Death	Edinburgh, Great Britain	Dies at home in Edinburgh at the age of ninety-four, leaving a central legacy in the Standard Model of particle physics.
18 June 2026	Francois Englert Theoretical Physicist	Death	Uccle, Belgium	Dies in Uccle at the age of ninety-three after a career spanning particle physics, cosmology and quantum field theory.

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