The man behind the Higgs boson

Nobel Prize winner Professor Peter Higgs. Credit: David Cheskin/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Ask Professor Peter Higgs about the particle, which bears his name and you will more than likely get a humble response.

A relatively shy man, he has struggled with the sudden fame he has experienced since the discovery of the Higgs Boson was announced last year.

The Newcastle-born scientist had his eureka moment while walking in the Scottish Highlands. It was the culmination of work done using a pen, paper and the power of thought.

But it took the world's biggest experiment, the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHR) at CERN in Switzerland, to prove him right.

The discovery of the Higgs Boson is considered the missing link in our understanding of the universe, known as the Standard Model.

It has also led to Professor Higgs becoming the only person ever to have a fundamental particle named after him.

It is a great honour, but one which this modest scientist is uncomfortable with. In fact Professor Higgs has said he would like the particle to be known as "the scalar boson".