The Special Fundamental Physics Prizes, which are annually granted by the Milner Foundation, have recognized the discovery of a particle that could by the Higgs Boson, ratified last summer at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). The group of Experimental High Energy Physics of the University of Oviedo, led by lecturer Javier Cuevas, has collaborated for more than 20 years with the CERN and carries out its work in the experiment Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), which is conducted at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) built nearby Geneva.

The jury has also distinguished with a special prize the eminent physicist Stephen Hawking for his contribution to the field of quantum gravity and black hole radiation. Each of the special prizes awarded by the Milner Fundation are assigned with 2.3 million euros and are dedicated to advancing our knowledge of the Universe at the deepest level.

The jury distinguishes the former and current heads of the ATLAS and CMS experiments, among them Peter Jenni, Fabiola Gianotti, Michel della Negra, Tejinder Singh Virdee, Guido Tonelli and Joe Incandela.

The result of the two experiments- CMS and ATLAS- which have led to the discovery of the new particle open a new era in scientific wxploration. The Higgs Boson would provide the rest of particles with mass and, therefore, would have given way to the creation of the University and every existing thing. There are 179 centres from 41 countries participating in the CMS project, whereas 176 institutions from 38 countries take part in the ATLAS program.

The data upon which the experiments are based come from the CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located on the Swiss-French border, where 40 million collisions are reproduced each second at a power level that no other machine can reproduce and of which between 300 and 600 collisions are registered and analyzed.