George Alverson Associate Professor of Experimental Particle Physics alverson@neu.edu 617.373.2938 Expertise data acquisition, experimental particle physics, Higgs boson, high-speed electronics, Monte Carlo simulation, three dimensional visualization of high energy events George Alverson for Northeastern Global News Particle physics goes public Particle physics goes public Northeastern is part of an international consortium working to make all data from the field of high-energy particle physics available to the public. A pivotal moment for particle physics A pivotal moment for particle physics Northeastern physics professor Emanuela Barberis examines the meaning of the discovery of the Higgs boson, the so-called “God particle.” 3Qs: Searching for the “Holy Grail” of physics 3Qs: Searching for the “Holy Grail” of physics Researchers at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, reported this week they are getting closer to discovering the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that scientists believe will explain why everything in the universe has mass. The Higgs boson is considered to be the “Holy Grail” of particle physics, and finding it would be a great scientific advancement. We asked Emanuela Barberis, associate professor of physics, to explain the Higgs boson and what its discovery would mean to the world’s scientific community.