Peter Higgs, a Nobel prize-winning physicist who predicted the existence of the Higgs boson particle, has died at the age of 94, the University of Edinburgh announced.
The particle, often referred to as the “god particle,” helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang.
Higgs predicted the presence of the particle in 1964, nearly 50 years before it could be confirmed at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. In 2013, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery along with François Englert of Belgium, who made a similar finding independently, for their theory of how particles acquire mass.
Higgs, a fiercely private person, spent much of career working at the Edinburgh University. He was also a member of the Royal Society and was made a Companion of Honor by Queen Elizabeth II.
Higgs died peacefully at home on Monday after a short illness, the university said. He is survived by two sons and two grandchildren.
