Professor's visit thrills his old school
IT was seeing the name of Nobel prize winner Paul Dirac on the honours boards at Cotham Grammar School during the Second World War that ignited Peter Higgs's interest in physics.
Seven decades on, Professor Higgs returned to his old school to inspire the next generation of scientists.
Pupils were thrilled to meet the man whose life's work has been dedicated to helping us understand how the universe works.
Peter Higgs came up with a theory in 1964, while working at the University of Edinburgh, about a particle – or boson – that might explain why particles have mass or energy.
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This came to be known as the Higgs Boson and is also sometimes described as the God particle.
Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) believe they are now close to confirming the existence of the elusive particle.
Professor Higgs talked to students at Cotham School about his theories and how they shaped his career.
A quiet, unassuming man, he quickly became animated as he spoke about his subject.
Among his audience was 17-year-old A-level physics student Nicola Papstavrou Brooks, who had baked cakes for the professor bearing the symbols of elementary particles.
She said: "It was really cool to meet him. He is so knowledgeable."
Teenagers queued up to shake the hand of the professor and a nuclear physics class clapped and cheered.
Staff were equally star-struck, with several seeking autographs and asking Professor Higgs to sign books, including Graham Farmelo's 2009 Costa Prize-winning biography The Strangest Man: The Life of Paul Dirac.
Teachers and pupils later attended a Bristol Festival of Ideas event involving Professor Higgs and Mr Farmelo last night.
At the school Professor Higgs unveiled a plaque naming the new science block The Dirac-Higgs Science Centre, after the two eminent old boys.
Head teacher Malcolm Willis said it was an honour to welcome Professor Higgs back to the school he left in 1946.
Dirac, who attended the Merchant Venturers' Technical College, which later became Cotham school, co-discovered quantum mechanics.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933.
Professor Higgs told students: "I feel pretty honoured at being bracketed with Paul Dirac. He is a much more eminent theoretical physicist than I am. I am not in the same league."
Comments
by Batdad
Saturday, May 19 2012, 10:02PM
“@John_Name
Lovely to hear South Bristol can turn out world class scientists. Which schools did Alan Chalmers attend?”
by katachua
Saturday, May 19 2012, 2:39PM
“Paul Dirac was probably second only to Einstein in 20th-Century theoretical physics, and much underrated in his home city.
Few have heard of Dirac, but everybody's heard of Cary Grant, two years behind him at Bishop Road Primary. I wonder if there's another primary school in the world that taught a future Nobel laureate and a future Oscar winner at the same time?”
by John_Name
Saturday, May 19 2012, 1:37PM
“@Batdad
What about Alan Chalmers? World-renowned scientist, retains to this day a discernible Bemmy accent:- http://tinyurl.com/7y2cezx”
by Batdad
Friday, May 18 2012, 11:23PM
“How lovely, for all those pupils whose parents can afford to live near enough to the school to get in. Not many world famous scientists returning to their alma maters in Withywood, Bedminster or Brislington. Wonder why?”
by nogbutt
Friday, May 18 2012, 4:34PM
“and dirac was the greatest british theoretical physicist since newton. a tough act for current students to follow ;)”
by John_Name
Friday, May 18 2012, 3:40PM
“Peter Higgs truly bestrides theoretical physics like a colossus.”