Congratulations to ATLAS team members Miriam Diamond, Nikolina Ilic, Peter Krieger, Bob Orr, Pierre Savard, Pekka Sinervo, Richard Teuscher, William Trischuk, for their contributions to the ATLAS experiment at CERN’s LHC.
The Breakthrough Prize specifically highlights the ATLAS Collaboration’s significant contributions to particle physics, including detailed measurements of Higgs boson properties, studies of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the exploration of nature under the most extreme conditions. The University of Toronto has been at the forefront of ATLAS research since the creation of the collaboration in the early 90s, contributing to construction and operation of the forward calorimeter, which has played a central role in the Higgs boson discovery and subsequent measurements.
According to ATLAS team member Prof. Pekka Sinervo:
“This prize recognizes a 20-year effort to construct the Large Hadron Collider and the ATLAS and CMS experiments, as well as ten years of data collection and analysis. The U of T team has had a key role in the ATLAS work. They have taken lead roles in uncovering the properties of the still mysterious Higgs boson.”
U of T’s team is deeply involved in preparing ATLAS for its next chapter. They are leading the development of a new all-silicon inner tracker (ITK) for the High-Luminosity LHC, which will increase collision rates tenfold when it begins operation in 2030.