2011 European Physical Society Prize to Glashow and Colleagues

May 31, 2011

The 2011 High Energy and Particle Physics Prize for an outstanding contribution to High Energy Physics in experimental, theoretical or technological area was awarded to Sheldon Lee Glashow, along with colleagues John Iliopoulos and Luciano Maiani, "for their crucial contribution to the theory of flavour, presently embedded in the Standard Theory of strong and electroweak interactions." In 1970, they discovered a compelling argument for the existence of a yet undiscovered particle - the "charm" quark - to solve a number of problems that particle physicists were facing at the time. Their proposal, now called "GIM mechanism" from the initials of the three authors, was spectacularly confirmed four years later, when particles containing the charm quark were finally discovered.