Royal Society Fellows share world’s biggest science prizes

Three Royal Society Fellows are among the recipients of two £1.8 million special prizes awarded by the Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation.

The Special Fundamental Physics Prize for a lifetime of achievements has been awarded to Professor Stephen Hawking FRS for his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes, and his deep contributions to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe.

Professor Tejinder (Jim) Virdee FRS and Dr Lyn Evans FRS are among seven senior scientists who will share another award, the Fundamental Physics Prize. The prize is awarded to them for their instrumental role in the design, construction and operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), ATLAS and CMS experiments, and leadership which led to the discovery of the new Higgs-like particle.

Professor Virdee was one of the five physicists who first proposed the CMS experiment.  He was the spokesperson for the collaboration from 2006-10.

Dr Lyn Evans was Project Leader of the Large Hadron Collider accelerator during the construction period.

The prizes are funded by the Milner Foundation.