WPRO News and the Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – The head of the European Organization for Nuclear Research is visiting Brown University to discuss the historic 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, a scientific feat that several Brown physicists had a hand in.

Director general Rolf-Dieter Heuer is giving a lecture Monday focusing on the subatomic particle and the future of the Large Hadron Collider, the particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland, that detected what is believed to be the elusive Higgs boson.

Brown University says several of its physicists played a critical role in the discovery, including Gerald Guralnik, one of the originators of the theory that predicted the boson nearly five decades ago.

A group of Brown physicists is now involved in a large-scale experiment using the collider, which was on a two-year hiatus following the 2012 discovery.