alt.hn

6/20/2026 at 9:51:21 PM

François Englert (1932 – 2026)

 https://home.cern/francois-englert-1932-2026/

by toomuchtodo

6/24/2026 at 12:11:20 PM

"The following year, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter Higgs.

François Englert, who completed a PhD in physics at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in 1959[..]"

Yes, even if most people have only ever heard of Higgs the 2013 Nobel Prize was shared between Englert and Higgs.

Yes, even if most people have only ever heard of ULB as the place where FOSDEM happens it is also Englert's alma mater.

by weinzierl

6/24/2026 at 1:01:23 PM

Oh wow. I attended one of his seminars in Brussels after he was awarded the Nobel prize. Memorably event, he seems quite charismatic and a good speaker.

Always a bit of a shame that the “Higgs” Boson stuck as the name, dropping Englert (and Brout).

by Insanity

6/24/2026 at 6:14:56 PM

The Englert paper did not have the equations for the the hypothetical field that would become known as the Higgs field, and it did not have the Higgs boson. The Higgs paper had the details to make these more aptly named for him.

Englert (and his coauthor) had some of the mechanisms, but not enough details to truly have the field or boson, hence the phrase "Brout-Engelert-Higgs-Guralnik-Hagen-Kibble mechanism".

by SideQuark