University honours four greats

16 Oct 2013

Two Nobel prizewinners among those to receive honorary degrees

Professor Peter Higgs – joint winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for his discovery of the so-called ‘God particle’, said to give matter its substance or mass – is to receive an honorary degree here today (Wednesday 16 October).

The 84-year-old emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh was recognised by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his work on the theory of the particle which shares his name, the Higgs boson. His theory was proved almost 50 years later by a team from the European nuclear research facility (Cern) and its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Professor Higgs will be joined by a fellow Nobel prizewinner Professor Mario Molina, who drew attention to the threat to the ozone layer from industrial chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases in spray cans, refrigerants and solvents back in the 1970s; footballing legend Sir Bobby Charlton; and Ms Frances O’Grady, a University alumnus and General Secretary of the TUC.

Professor Higgs is a theoretical physicist who posited in 1964 that elementary particles gained mass by way of a particle (or field) that has since been called the Higgs boson. Peter grew up in Birmingham and Bristol, then went to King's College in London in 1947. He went on to earn his doctorate and then became a researcher at the University of Edinburgh.

Between 1960 and 1980, Higgs was a mathematics professor there, and from 1980 he was a professor of theoretical physics. His theory of the missing boson drove physics research for decades. In July of last year at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, results were presented which confirmed Peter Higgs’ idea and heralded the start of the next chapter to study in detail the properties of this new particle.

Professor Molina is a Professor at the University of California, SanDiego. In the 1970’s he drew attention to the threat to the ozone layer from industrial chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) gases in spray cans, refrigerants and solvents. More recently, he has been involved with the chemistry of air pollution of the lower atmosphere, and with the science and policy of climate change.

Professor Molina was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, and of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences of the Vatican. He has received many honorary degrees, as well as numerous awards for his scientific work, including the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Sir Bobby is probably best known for his outstanding record as a footballer for Manchester United and England. Being immortalised in bronze outside Old Trafford evidences the legendary status achieved by Sir Bobby during his epic career at the former.

He burst onto the scene as a flag-bearer for the ‘Busby Babes’ and went on to form part of United’s fabled ‘Holy Trinity’ alongside George Best and Denis Law.

His achievements since his football career ended have been immense, often for benefit of the City of Manchester, as well as further afield.

Sir Bobby is a member of the Laureus Academy which uses the power of sport to help tackle pressing social challenges through the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation projects. In 2011, he founded the ‘Find a Better Way’ charity to develop new technology to accelerate the detection and removal of landmines globally. The charity works with this University and other partners in the North West to this end.

Frances O’Grady joined the TUC as Campaigns Officer in 1994 and launched the TUC’s Organising Academy in 1997. Frances headed the TUC’s organisation department in 1999, reorganising local skills projects into unionlearn which now helps a quarter of a million workers into learning every year.

As Deputy General Secretary from 2003, Frances has led on industrial policy, the NHS and the Olympics. She has served as a member of both the Low Pay Commission and the High Pay Centre, and the Resolution Foundation’s Commission on Living Standards.

Frances was born in Oxford, has two adult children and lives in North London.