François Englert is a world-renowned theoretical physicist whose groundbreaking work has transformed our understanding of fundamental particle interactions. Born on November 6, 1932, in Etterbeek, Belgium, he survived the Nazi occupation during World War II by concealing his Jewish identity through refuge in multiple orphanages across Belgium. He earned degrees in electromechanical engineering in 1955 and a 'Licence en Sciences Physiques' (equivalent to a master's degree in physics) in 1958, followed by a doctorate in physics in 1959, all from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Following his doctoral studies, he conducted research at Cornell University as a research associate and assistant professor from 1959 to 1961, where he began his seminal collaboration with Robert Brout. Since 1964, he has maintained a distinguished career at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he served as professor and later as professor emeritus beginning in 1998.
Englert's most profound contribution to physics is his co-development of the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism, which explains how elementary particles acquire mass through interaction with the Higgs field. His landmark 1964 paper with Robert Brout, Broken Symmetry and the Mass of Gauge Vector Mesons, established the theoretical framework for understanding the origin of mass in the universe, a concept that remained experimentally unverified for nearly five decades. This pioneering work provided the essential foundation for the Standard Model of particle physics and directly predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, often colloquially referred to as the God particle. The experimental confirmation of the Higgs boson at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in 2012 validated his theoretical insights and marked one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 21st century. This achievement cemented his place among the most influential theoretical physicists of the modern era.
Beyond his Nobel Prize-winning work, Englert has made substantial contributions across multiple domains including quantum field theory, cosmology, string theory, and supergravity, demonstrating remarkable intellectual breadth throughout his career. He has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards including the Wolf Prize in Physics in 2004 and the J.J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics in 2010, culminating in the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013 which he shared with Peter Higgs. Currently, he maintains an active scholarly presence as a distinguished visiting professor affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Studies at Chapman University and holds a position at Tel Aviv University. His enduring legacy continues to inspire new generations of physicists exploring the deepest questions about the fundamental nature of our universe, and his theoretical framework remains central to ongoing research in particle physics and cosmology worldwide.
