(Apr 9, 2025)
Congratulations to the Department of Physics and Astronomy members of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment for winning the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics!
The prize is awarded to the co-authors of publications based on CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Run-2 data released between 2015 and July 15, 2024, at the experimental collaborations ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb. The award citation reads:
The four experiments are recognized for testing the modern theory of particle physics – the Standard Model – and other theories describing physics that might lie beyond it to high precision. This includes precisely measuring properties of the Higgs boson and elucidating the mechanism by which the Higgs field gives mass to elementary particles; probing extremely rare particle interactions, and exotic states of matter that existed in the first moments of the Universe; discovering more than 72 new hadrons and measuring subtle differences between matter and antimatter particles; and setting strong bounds on possibilities for new physics beyond the Standard Model, including dark matter, supersymmetry and hidden extra dimensions. ATLAS and CMS are general-purpose experiments, which pursue the full program of exploration offered by the LHC's high-energy and high-intensity proton and ion beams. They synchronously announced the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 and continue to investigate its properties. ALICE studies the quark-gluon plasma, a state of extremely hot and dense matter that existed in the first microseconds after the Big Bang. And LHCb explores minute differences between matter and antimatter, violation of fundamental symmetries, and the complex spectra of composite particles ("hadrons") made of heavy and light quarks. By performing these extraordinarily precise and delicate tests, the LHC experiments have pushed the boundaries of fundamental physics to unprecedented limits.
The picture below shows the spokespersons of the four experiments receiving the prize at the ceremony in Los Angeles on April 5. (From left to right: Andreas Hoecker, former ATLAS spokesperson; Patricia McBride, former CMS spokesperson; Marco Van Leeuwen, ALICE spokesperson and Vincenzo Vagnoni, LHCb spokesperson)
Here are links with more information:
Breakthrough Foundation:
https://breakthroughprize.org/Laureates/1
CERN announcement:
And here is the full list of winners from Rutgers including both current and former members of CMS:
John Paul Chou (current faculty)
Yuri Gershtein (current faculty)
Eva Halkiadakis (current faculty)
Amitabh Lath (current faculty)
Roy Montalvo (current faculty)
Sevil Salur (current faculty)
Sunil Somalwar (current faculty)
Scott Thomas (current faculty)
Steve Schnetzer (former faculty)
Joseph Reichert (current staff)
Robert Stone (current staff)
Ed Bartz (former staff, Electronics Engineer)
Brandon Chiarito (current GS)
Divya Gadkari (current PD)
Connor Houghton (current GS)
David Jaroslawski (current GS)
Amandeep Kaur (current PD)
Sotiroulla Konstantinou (current PD)
Jordan Martins (current PD)
Philip Meltzer (current GS)
Benjamin Rand (current GS)
Prafulla Saha (current PD)
Steffie Ann Thayil (current GS)
Antonis Agapitos (former PD)
Sanjay Arora (former GS)
Andrew Askew (former PD)
Anthony Barker (former GS)
Steven Vincent Clark (former GS)
Christian Contreras-Campana (former GS)
Emmanuel Contreras-Campana (former GS)
Sourabh Dube (former GS)
Daniel Duggan (former PD)
Raghav (Rithya) Kunnawalkam Elayavalli (former GS)
Tirso Alejandro Gómez Espinosa (former GS)
Abhijith Gandrakota (former GS)
Richard Gray (former PD)
Andrew Hart (former PD)
Maximilian Heindl (former GS)
Dean Hidas (former PD)
Dmitry Hits (former GS)
Elliot Hughes (former GS)
Steven Kaplan (former GS)
Olena Karacheban (former PD)
Timothy Koeth (former GS)
Savvas Kyriacou (former GS)
Ian Laflotte (former GS)
Marc Osherson (former PD)
Shruti Panwalkar (former GS)
Michael Park (former GS)
Rishi Patel (former GS)
Keith Rose (former GS)
Hardik Routray(former GS>
Halil Saka (former PD)
Claudia Seitz (former GS)
David Sheffield (former GS)
Jay Vora (former GS)
Matthew Walker (former PD)
Hui Wang (former PD)
Congratulations to all for this exceptional honor!
Additionally, much appreciation should also be given to our department colleagues Jonathan Harrop (current staff), Chithra Kurup (current staff), John Doroshenko (current staff), and Pieter Jacques (former staff). While the CERN rules did not allow them to be named laureates, they have and are continuing to make significant contributions to our research at CERN, and in many ways enabling certain research activities to be done locally at Rutgers.
This is the second time Rutgers researchers in P&A have received this honor. Ten years ago the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was won by Prof. Saurabh Jha of the High-Z Supernova Search Team "[f]or the most unexpected discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing as had been long assumed."