Scientists from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) are among the thousands of researchers worldwide honored with the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, awarded to the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) alongside its sister experiments ALICE, CMS and LHCb. The prize was awarded during a ceremony of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation held in Los Angeles on 5 April.

ATLAS is one of the largest and most complex scientific instruments ever built. As a general-purpose particle detector measuring over 40 meters in length and around 25 meters in height, it was designed to investigate the fundamental building blocks of matter and the forces governing our universe. Its cutting-edge systems track particles produced in particle collisions at unprecedented energies, enabling discoveries like the Higgs boson and searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model.

The Breakthrough Prize specifically highlights the ATLAS Collaboration’s significant contributions to particle physics, including detailed measurements of Higgs boson properties, studies of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the exploration of nature under the most extreme conditions.

“The Breakthrough Prize is a testament to the dedication and ingenuity of the ATLAS Collaboration and our colleagues across the LHC experiments,” said ATLAS Spokesperson Stephane Willocq. "This prize recognizes the collective vision and monumental effort of thousands of ATLAS collaborators worldwide.”

“I am extremely proud to see the extraordinary accomplishments of the LHC collaborations honored with this prestigious Prize,” said Fabiola Gianotti, Director-General of CERN. “It is a beautiful recognition of the collective efforts, dedication, competence and hard work of thousands of people from all over the world who contribute daily to pushing the boundaries of human knowledge.”

Mainz is home to one of the largest university groups in the ATLAS collaboration. JGU researchers have played a key role in the construction, upgrade and operation of the detector. This includes the design and construction of high-speed electronics for the trigger system, as well as detectors for improved muon detection, which were built in-house using the facilities of the Detector Laboratory of the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence.

During Run 2, the second operating period of the LHC between 2015 and 2018, the Mainz group made numerous leading contributions to a wide range of studies, including precise measurements of the strength of the interaction between the Higgs boson and other particles, which led to the determination that the Higgs boson is indeed responsible for the generation of particle masses.

"The Mainz group is excited about the incredible wealth of scientific results obtained with the ATLAS detector and we are looking forward to continue working as part of the collaboration," said Volker Büscher, Professor at JGU and former spokesperson of ATLAS Germany. "With more data and further improvements to the ATLAS detector we will be able to investigate how our universe works at the most fundamental level."

"The successes of Run 2 showcase the ingenuity of the ATLAS Collaboration — not only in collecting data with a detector of outstanding precision, but also in our relentless drive to improve our understanding of it," said Andreas Hoecker, former ATLAS Spokesperson.

While the ATLAS Collaboration celebrates the recognition of the Breakthrough Prize, its focus remains firmly on the future. The third operation period of the LHC is currently underway and preparations for the High-Luminosity LHC upgrade are advancing rapidly. The Mainz ATLAS team of more than 50 physicists and engineers is deeply involved in preparing the experiment for its next chapter. They are leading the development of new trigger electronics and contributing to the construction of a new high-granularity timing detector for the High-Luminosity LHC, which will increase collision rates tenfold when it begins operation in 2030.

“We are now preparing the ATLAS detectors of the future — designed to harness these unprecedented data and further push our understanding of the universe’s fundamental building blocks,” concludes Willocq.