From Maxwell to Higgs – Talk

From Maxwell to Higgs – by Alan Walker MBE – 

At about 3.00pm on the afternoon of Tuesday 8 October 2013, a car pulled to a halt on the gardens side of Heriot Row in Edinburgh. A lady got out and raced across to street to intercept Professor Emeritus Peter Ware Higgs as he was walking home to Darnaway Street. She stopped him and said “Congratulations! My daughter just called me from London and told me about your award!” to which Peter Higgs replied, “What award?” This was the moment when Peter Higgs first heard that the Nobel Foundation had awarded him the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics. The talk will trace the developments started by James Clerk Maxwell and providing the inspiration in 1964 for Peter to solve a problem that would lead to the discovery in 2012 of what became known as the Higgs Boson.

Speaker – Alan Walker 

Alan is currently the Chair of the James Clerk Maxwell Foundation based at 14 India Street, Edinburgh. He received an MBE for ‘Services to Science Education and Science Engagement in Scotland’ and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics. He was awarded the first Royal Society of Edinburgh Pro Meritas Medal, for supporting the society and creating their ‘From Maxwell to Higgs Exhibition’. He was a major contributor to the 2015 Orkney International Science Festival and exhibited annually at the Edinburgh International Science Festival from 2005 to 2016