The Society for Promotion of Science & Technology in India (SPSTI) held its monthly lecture today, i.e. December 2, 2013 at Nirvachan Sadan, Sector 17, Panchkula and lauded the Indian contribution to the experiment that proved the existence of Higgs Boson, commonly known as God Particle.
Professor Suman Beri from the Department of Physics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, spoke on ‘Indian Participation in the Discovery of Higgs Boson at the LHC Experiment’. She gave a brief introduction of structure of matter and creation of universe (Big Bang) with the help of beautifully illustrated slides. This is the field in which the Nobel Prize for 2013 was given to Peter Higgs and F. Englert. The fact that their theory fetched them the prize after nearly fifty long years of its formulation is due to the discovery of the celebrated ‘God Particle’ as the Higgs’ Boson came to be known, at the famous LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment in Geneva only last year. Prof. Beri and her colleagues in the Particle Physics group at the University are participants in this experiment and their expertise as extensively used at the CMS detector. They are among about 15 Indian research groups and a total of 37 countries participating in this biggest international collaboration so far. Prof. Beri also screened a documentary prepared by Vigyan Prasar (GOI) on the Indian Participation in LHC.
The event was attended by members of SPSTI and distinguished guests such as Mr. S. D. Bhambri, former Chief Secretary of Haryana, as well as a few school students and members of the press. The President of the Society, Mr. Dharam Vir, former Chief Secretary, Haryana thanked the audience and presented a memento to the speaker.