Belgian physicist François Englert, Nobel laureate for the Higgs boson theory, dies at 93

François Englert, the Belgian theoretical physicist who helped lay the foundation for the discovery of the Higgs boson, died on 12 June at the age of 93, his family announced on 19 June. His death closes a chapter in modern particle physics: he was the last surviving member of the trio (with Robert Brout and Peter Higgs) who in 1964 independently proposed the mechanism that explains how elementary particles acquire mass.

A half-century wait for confirmation

Englert and Brout published their idea in 1964, two months before Higgs released a paper reaching the same conclusion. The so-called Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism became a cornerstone of the Standard Model of particle physics, but for decades the predicted boson remained undetected. That changed in 2012, when experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider near Geneva observed a particle consistent with the Higgs boson with 97 percent certainty. The finding validated the half-century-old theory and reshaped the understanding of why matter has mass.

“Can you explain the principle of the Higgs-Englert boson in two minutes? No, that is impossible.”

Nobel recognition and delayed honour

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics to Englert and Higgs. Robert Brout, who died in 2011, was not eligible. For Englert, the prize marked the culmination of a career that began with a doctorate in physical sciences from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in 1959 and included early research at Cornell University alongside Brout.

Although the particle became widely known as the Higgs boson (a naming that, De Standaard reported, Englert privately attributed to British chauvinism but asked not to be printed), the Nobel citation explicitly acknowledged the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism. Englert remained understated about the fame, telling interviewers that explaining the concept succinctly was impossible.

A life shaped by war and science

Born on 6 November 1932 in Etterbeek, Brussels, to Polish Jewish parents who had emigrated eight years earlier, Englert survived the Holocaust in hiding, separated from his parents. His whole immediate family survived, though their extended family in Poland did not. His early interest in mathematics, sparked by a teacher, led him to study physics at ULB, where he later directed the theoretical physics department and became a professor emeritus. He also held a chair at Tel Aviv University. Beyond Belgium, he was honoured with the Francqui Prize, the Wolf Prize, and the title of baron; the base sphere of the Atomium bears his name.