Fermilab Scientist to Give Hoxton Lecture on Higgs Boson on April 18

Chris Quigg, a senior scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago, will give the University of Virginia’s 41st annual Llewellyn G. Hoxton Lecture on April 18 at 7 p.m. in the Chemistry Building auditorium (room 402). In his talk, “The World According to Higgs,” Quigg will discuss the consequences of the remarkable discovery recently of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva. A reception will follow in the Chemistry Building atrium.

Quigg’s research spans many topics in particle physics, from heavy quarks through cosmic neutrinos. His work on electroweak symmetry breaking and supercollider physics charted the course for exploration at Fermilab’s Tevatron collider and at the Large Hadron Collider. The American Physical Society recognized his work in 2011 with its J.J. Sakurai Prize for outstanding achievement in particle theory.

Quigg, whose current research centers on experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, led the Fermilab Theoretical Physics Department for a decade during its formative years. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. As chair of the American Physical Society Division of Particles and Fields, he led a 2001 study on the future of particle physics. He is an adviser to the High Energy Physics Center at Tsinghua University in Beijing and the University of Copenhagen Discovery Center. He has held several visiting appointments at major institutions in the United States and Europe. 

Llewellyn G. Hoxton, for whom the lecture series is named, was a professor of physics in U.Va.’s College of Arts & Sciences and chaired the physics department from 1907 to 1948. Throughout those years, he considered it to be of great importance to convey to students the excitement of new developments in physics. The Hoxton Lectures were inaugurated by the Department of Physics in 1971 to share the viewpoints of physicists on topics where their expertise may offer new insights. These free lectures are intended to be interesting and provocative.

For information, call 434-924-3782 or email Helen McLaughlin, physics and education outreach assistant, at him2b@virginia.edu.