Nobel Prize for Physics awarded to Higgs boson scientists after Cern experiment success

François Englert and Peter Higgs receive prestigious honour

Two scientists credited with the discovery of the Higgs boson - the so-called "God particle", which could help open up new understanding about the way the universe is constructed - have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Peter Higgs (pictured above) and François Englert have been given the award at the annual ceremony in Stockholm after experiments at Cern proved their hypothesis was accurate last year.

The Nobel Prize committee said: "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 was awarded jointly to François Englert and Peter W. Higgs for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles.

"[This] was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the Atlas and CMS experiments at Cern's Large Hadron Collider."

Higgs, the emeritus professor of theoretical physics at the University of Edinburgh, said he was "overwhelmed" to win the award and thanked all those he had worked with to be awarded the prize.

"I would also like to congratulate all those who have contributed to the discovery of this new particle and to thank my family, friends and colleagues for their support," he said. "I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research."

Cern director general Rolf Heuer said he was thrilled at the news, especially given the organisation's pivotal role in the two scientists' research.

"The discovery of the Higgs boson at Cern last year, which validates the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism, marks the culmination of decades of intellectual effort by many people around the world," he said

Cern also celebrated the news in a message on Twitter.