Today we mark the tenth anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson - the mysterious subatomic particle associated with the existence of the property of mass.
The Higgs particle was discovered at CERN on 4.7.2012. At that time, Professor Admir Greljo was working on his doctoral dissertation at the University of Ljubljana, in which he was studying precisely the Higgs boson. In honour of this anniversary, we travel to Switzerland and read the professor's story:
“I currently work at the University of Bern, where I lead a research group of two doctoral students and three postdoctoral researchers. We investigate the origin of the generations of elementary particles at high energies. High-energy physics is the science that deals with questions about the beginning of the creation of the universe. What are the fundamental particles of matter and how do they interact? What did the universe look like immediately after the Big Bang? Very interesting things are happening in my field. Namely, there are certain occurrences that theoretical physics cannot explain – deviations between experiment and theory. Experimentalists are measuring something we did not expect and which has the potential for a major discovery, so I am trying to formulate a new theory that could explain these new measurements.
I finished secondary school and the Faculty of Science – Department of Physics – in Sarajevo. During my studies I became interested in theoretical high-energy physics. I knew I would not be able to specialise in it in BiH, so I decided to go abroad in search of knowledge. I obtained my PhD at the University of Ljubljana in 2014. The subject of my doctoral dissertation was the Higgs boson, the mysterious subatomic particle associated with the existence of the property of mass. The Higgs particle was discovered at CERN in 2012. At that time I was working at the Jožef Stefan Institute as a young researcher and studying at the University of Ljubljana.
After my PhD, I continued my training through postdoctoral research. During my first “postdoc” – three years at the University of Zurich – I was interested in a problem related to the generations of elementary particles. Namely, in addition to the first generation of particles, which makes up our everyday matter, there are two more generations that appear under extreme conditions such as particle collisions at CERN. During my stay in Zurich, I laid the foundations of a new (complementary) methodology for studying the problem of particle generations using high-energy collisions.
After my first postdoctoral position, I spent a year in Mainz, Germany, and then applied to CERN and was awarded their fellowship. I worked at that prestigious international laboratory for two years. For me, this was extremely important. Out of several hundred candidates, they selected just a few of us. And, I should mention, BiH is not a member of CERN, so it is extremely difficult to get the opportunity. I worked with the best physicists of today, learned from them and continued to grow academically. Apart from theoretical knowledge, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the experiments carried out at CERN, which was a tremendous experience for me as a theoretical physicist.
Through science, training and the knowledge I have gained, I have come to see that we – Bosnians and Herzegovinians – are in no way inferior to anyone. We just need, like everyone else, to do things as well as we can. Science never gives instant results; rather, it requires diligent and long-term work, and that is what then brings real value.”
