Prestigious award: Scientists from ALICE at GSI/FAIR among the winners of the renowned “Breakthrough Prize” for fundamental physics
30.04.2025 |
This year´s prestigious US “Breakthrough Prize” for fundamental physics has been awarded to the four scientific collaborations ALICE, ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European research center CERN. More than 40 previous and current scientists from ALICE at GSI/FAIR are also significantly involved and have now been honored together with their scientific colleagues with the prestigious prize, which is endowed with three million US dollars and is often referred to as the “Oscar of science”. It was recently awarded in a festive ceremony in Los Angeles.
There are four major experiments at the LHC collider at the CERN research center in Geneva: As part of ALICE, ATLAS, CMS and LHCb, thousands of scientists from more than 70 countries are working together and conduct research at the LHC. The “Breakthrough Prize” was awarded to the LHC collaborations for experiments up to July 2024, in particular for their „detailed measurements of Higgs boson properties confirming the symmetry-breaking mechanism of mass generation, the discovery of new strongly interacting particles, the study of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the exploration of nature at the shortest distances and most extreme conditions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider”.
Scientists at GSI play an important role in the ALICE collaboration (A Large Ion Collider Experiment). ALICE is investigating collisions of heavy-ions, e.g. lead. When lead atomic nuclei collide with unimaginable impact in the LHC, conditions are created similar to the first moments of the universe. During the collisions, a so-called quark-gluon plasma is created for a very short time - a state of matter that existed in the universe shortly after the Big Bang. This plasma transforms back into normal matter within fractions of a second. The particles produced in the process provide information about the properties of the quark-gluon plasma. Thus, the measurements can peer into the birth of the cosmos and reveal information about the basic building blocks of matter and their interactions.
The relationship between GSI/FAIR and ALICE is very close. From the very earliest days of the project, GSI has played a leading role in the construction and the scientific program of ALICE and was also involved in the development of new measuring instruments. The two large ALICE detector systems Time Projection Chamber (TPC) and Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) were designed and built with significant contributions of GSI’s ALICE department and the Detector Laboratory. Today scientists from both departments focus on the TPC, which is the centerpiece for track reconstruction in the central ALICE barrel setup and is indispensable for particle identification. Scientists from GSI's IT department contribute strongly to the new data acquisition and analysis software O2, and the GSI/FAIR computing center is an integral part of the network for data analysis of the ALICE experiment.
Following consultation with the experiments’ management teams of the four large collaborations at the LHC, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation will donate the $3 million Prize to the CERN & Society Foundation. The prize money will be used to offer grants for doctoral students from the collaborations’ member institutes. This gives them the opportunity to spend research time at CERN to gain practical experience in cutting-edge research.
The award ceremony recently took place at a gala event in Los Angeles, California, which was attended by renowned researchers and numerous celebrities from Hollywood, the music industry, top-class sport and the tech industry. At the ceremony, the Breakthrough Prize was accepted by the spokespersons of the four CERN experiments. “The ALICE collaboration is honored to receive the Breakthrough Prize for the investigation of the properties of the hottest and densest matter available in a laboratory, the quark-gluon plasma”, says ALICE spokesperson Professor Marco Van Leeuwen.
The Scientific Managing Director of GSI and FAIR, Professor Thomas Nilsson, was very pleased with the great success. “I am extremely delighted for the award-winning scientists. My warmest congratulations go to all of them. The prize is an outstanding recognition of the important work that so many have done with such great dedication in recent years. The use of the prize money to support young researchers is a wonderful gesture. The new scholarships funded by this prize will help train the next generation of physicists. They will shape our future.“
Professor Silvia Masciocchi and Dr. Ralf Averbeck, who head the ALICE department at GSI/FAIR, said: “We are truly honored to be part of a global team receiving this very prestigious recognition. This award reflects the collective achievements of the LHC Collaborations and acknowledges the vital contributions of each and every group involved in the experiments at the LHC. It serves as a proud testament to nearly 30 years of GSI’s dedication to ALICE, during which our predecessors and current teams have tirelessly worked to develop and upgrade central detector systems, operate them effectively, develop data handling frameworks, supply crucial computing resources, and provide essential leadership in both physics and collaboration efforts. This celebration is a meaningful testament to our collaborative spirit and collective success.”
“I am extremely proud to see the extraordinary accomplishments of the LHC collaborations honoured with this prestigious Prize,” said Professor Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of CERN. “It is a beautiful recognition of the collective efforts, dedication, competence and hard work of thousands of people from all over the world who contribute daily to pushing the boundaries of human knowledge.” (BP)
The Breakthrough Prizes
The Breakthrough Prizes are awarded by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation in various scientific disciplines and include prize money of three million US dollars each. They are awarded annually in fundamental physics, life sciences and mathematics. The awards were established by Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Julia and Yuri Milner and Anne Wojcicki to recognize outstanding achievements by scientists and provide inspiration for the next generation of researchers.
More information
The names of the laureates of ALICE
