Thanks to James Gillies and the other nice people at CERN, the particles traveled to Lindau, Germany in early July to be presented to the Nobel laureates in physics at the annual conference of Nobel Prize Winners. The particles were greatly honored to be in the hands of the men who shaped much of what we know about the universe today:

• Dr. David Gross, 2004 Nobel winner in physics for the asymptotic freedom of quarks and strong color charge, got a gluon. I've been a of fan of David Gross ever since I watched this great lecture entitled "The Coming Revolutions in Theoretical Physics."
• Dr. George Smoot, 2006 Nobel winner in physics for cosmic background radiation, got a photon.
• Dr. Gerardus t'Hooft, 1999 Nobel prize winner in physics for electroweak interactions, got a Higgs boson.

All photos by Volker Steger.

Dr. David Gross and Dr. George Smoot show off their particles after the press conference in Lindau, Germany

David Gross(left) is currently director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, CA.

George Smoot is known for making cosmology "a precision science." As part of the COBE satellite research team, he discovered
evidence for the birth of the universe. So it is appropriate that he received a photon.

George Smoot, astrophyisicist, cosmologist and professor at MIT, with his photon.

Gerardus t'Hooft of the Netherlands is known for his work in quantum field theory and quantum gravity.

There is an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter named after t'Hooft, who wrote a constitution for its future inhabitants.

 

OLDER GALLERY