The Fundamental Physics Prize foundation today announced that a $3m prize will go to seven scientists who led the effort to discover a Higgs-like particle at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
The special prize honours some of the leaders of the LHC, CMS and ATLAS projects from the time the LHC was approved by the CERN Council in 1994. Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti, Michel Della Negra, Tejinder Singh Virdee, Guido Tonelli, Joe Incandela and Lyn Evans will share a prize, awarded "in exceptional circumstances" for their leadership roles in the endeavour that led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the LHC.
Russian tech-investor Yuri Milner launched the Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation in July this year to advance our knowledge of the universe. The $27 million foundation will award $3 million every year to researchers in fundamental physics, who are then invited to select recipients of future prizes.
The foundation also announced the winners of this year's Physics Frontiers Prize and the New Horizons in Physics Prize for junior researchers. The winner of the 2013 Fundamental Physics Prize will be announced at a ceremony at CERN on 20 March 2013.