Britain's Peter Higgs wins Nobel Physics Prize

Every ounce of mass found in the universe is made possible by the Higgs boson. Credit: PA

Britain's Professor Peter Higgs was today announced as joint-winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Higgs picked up the prize along with Belgium's Francois Englert, "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles".

ITV News' Lawrence McGinty reports:

The mechanism was predicted by both professors independently in 1964.

But it was Higgs who pointed out that the theory would need a so-far undiscovered particle: the Higgs boson.

For almost half a century the search for proof of the boson's existence - known as the Higgs Hunt - was unsuccessful.

But last year Higgs was proved right after all when the fundamental particle was observed in experiments at CERN in Switzerland.

Peter Higgs met The Duke of Edinburgh earlier this year. Credit: PA

The vindication of his theory last year brought a tear to the professor's eye.

When asked days later whether he thought he was likely to get the prize, Higgs joked "I don't know - I don't have close friends on the Nobel committee".