Origin of the Universe

Neeti Parashar - Professor of Physics

PNW and the Higgs-Boson

Professor Parashar leads the high energy physics program at PNW, via full membership to Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab ), in Batavia Illinois and the European Organization for
Nuclear Research (CERN), in Geneva Switzerland.

PNW is the only institution in the Northwest Indiana region placed on the global map of fundamental scientific discoveries. Parashar has dedicated her endeavors to perform basic science research at the world’s most powerful accelerator, and securing federal funding of $ 2 million via a merit and peer reviewed process to support the program.

The discovery of the Higgs boson aka “The God Particle” made headline news world-wide in July 2012, including Northwest Indiana. Professor Parashar is part of the team that discovered the Higgs boson at CERN. The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics was given to two theorists who predicted the existence of the Higgs boson.

Nearly 2000 physicists from U.S. institutions—including 89 U.S. universities and seven U.S. Department of Energy laboratories—participated in the Higgs discovery. As one of those physicists, Parashar cannot put into words what it means to work on such a large-scale collaboration. This discovery is a crowning achievement of the century.