Great minds meet at portrait unveiling

An evocative painting of the physicist Peter Higgs by leading artist Ken Currie has gone on display at the University.

The oil painting shows the eminent scientist at his home in Edinburgh and is being displayed in the Informatics Forum.

Professor Higgs, Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University met Mr Currie, one of Scotland’s most influential artists, at the unveiling.

Interview with Professor Peter Higgs

Watch a video interview with Professor Higgs at the portrait launch.

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Birthplace of the Higgs boson theory

It has been a great honour and privilege to be given the opportunity to paint Professor Peter Higgs.

The picture has been unveiled as scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva prepare to search for evidence of Higgs’ greatest theory.

Experiments at the accelerator may verify the existence of the Higgs boson particle, a tiny yet crucial building block of physical matter.

The Professor’s theory of how elementary particles have mass has dominated the world of particle physics for 40 years.

It was while working at the University in the 1960s that Higgs began to formulate the theory.

Reflecting achievements

Ken Currie is one of Scotland’s most influential artists.

He was commissioned by the University to honour the Professor’s tremendous achievements.

The University wanted to honour Peter Higgs’ tremendous achievements in a special way. We are delighted with Ken Currie’s painting and will be proud to display it for posterity.

Image of the portrait reproduced with kind permission of the artist.