Award Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Research at the World’s Most Powerful Particle Accelerator

For their fundamental physics research at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) – the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, based at CERN near Geneva (Switzerland) – scientists involved in the four major experiments ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb have been awarded this year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. Physicists from Heidelberg University play a leading role in three of the four experiments. The three million dollar prize is deemed to be one of the world’s highest-endowed research awards in the natural sciences. The Breakthrough Prize is awarded by a group of U.S. tech entrepreneurs and science philanthropists.

“This recognition of the research carried out at the LHC — to which Germany has made a significant contribution — highlights the immense value of the scientific advances already achieved at CERN, as well as those still to come. It also celebrates the peaceful international collaboration of researchers from across the globe,” emphasises Prof. Dr Stephanie Hansmann-Menzemer, physicist at Heidelberg University’s Institute for Physics and Chairperson of the LHCb Collaboration Board.

Physicists at Heidelberg University are heavily involved in the ALICE, ATLAS, and LHCb experiments. The teams of Prof. Dr Johanna Stachel (Institute for Physics), Prof. Dr Andre Schöning (Institute for Physics), and Prof. Dr Hans-Christian Schultz-Coulon (Kirchhoff Institute for Physics), as well as Prof. Dr Stephanie Hansmann-Menzemer and Prof. Dr Ulrich Uwer (both from the Institute for Physics), are all contributing to this work. Numerous physics students are also involved in the research. Last year, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) approved approximately nine million euros in funding over three years for LHC-related research at Heidelberg University.

Since its launch in 2008, the Large Hadron Collider and its four major experiments have shaped the field of particle physics and opened up new insights into the world of the smallest particles and how they interact. In the underground ring-shaped accelerator, which spans nearly 27 kilometers in circumference, protons or atomic nuclei are accelerated in opposite directions to near light speed before being brought into collision. These collisions recreate conditions similar to those just after the Big Bang. Using specialized detectors, researchers can observe which particles are produced in these collisions. The goal of the research is to gain new insights from particle collisions that shed light on previously unanswered questions in physics about the composition and evolution of our universe. 

The Breakthrough Prize honours more than 13,000 LHC researchers from over 70 countries who have published scientific results based on data from the Large Hadron Collider since 2015. The award ceremony took place on 5 April 2025 in Santa Monica, California.