Illustration of the British theoretical physicist Peter Higgs (1929-2024). Higgs is best known for predicting (in 1964) the existence of a new type of fundamental particle, commonly called the Higgs boson. This particle is required by many of the current Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) that hope to explain three of the fundamental forces (electromagnetism, the weak and the strong nuclear forces) in a single unified theory. The discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson was announced by scientists at CERN (the European particle physics laboratory) on the 4th July 2012. Higgs, along with Francois Englert, was awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the Higgs field.