Physicist Peter Higgs, after whom the Higgs boson particle is named, has been recognised in the New Year Honours.

In the 1960s, Prof Higgs and other physicists proposed a mechanism to explain why the most basic building blocks of the Universe have mass.

The mechanism predicts the existence of a Higgs particle, the discovery of which was claimed this year（2012） at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

His discovery announced in July this year of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson immediately led to calls for the 83-year-old to be knighted.

He is now also considered to be a candidate for a Nobel prize, perhaps in conjunction with other physicists who reached similar conclusions at the same time.

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Higgs was inspired at school by the work of physicist Paul Dirac, who helped lay the foundations of quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter.

After obtaining his PhD from King's College London, he held academic positions at the University of Edinburgh and then London before returning to the Edinburgh to lecture at the Tait Institute of Mathematical Physics.

Also honoured are: physicist Keith Burnett, vice-chancellor of Sheffield University, who is knighted; and Carol Vivien Robinson, professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford, who is made a Dame.

(同时，英国谢菲尔德大学的校长Keith Burnett受封为爵士，牛津大学的化学教授Carol Vivien Robinson受封为女爵。)

Peter Higgs awarded Companion of Honour in New Year honours list

Higgs boson theorist honoured for service of conspicuous national importance, and 31 headteachers recognised in list。

The scientist who gave his name to the Higgs boson, Prof Peter Higgs, receives one of the highest accolades in the New Year honours list, that of Companion of Honour, awarded for service of conspicuous national importance.

The 83-year-old emeritus professor of theoretical physics at Edinburgh University first hit on the concept of a particle that gives matter mass during a walk in the Cairngorms 40 years ago.

An Edinburgh University spokesman said Higgs' honour was "a well-deserved testament to the impact of his work and the influence he is already having on the next generation of physicists".

恭喜系格斯，离诺贝尔奖又近了一步！