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Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics

The T2K collaboration, a particle physics experiment that is a collaboration between several countries and universities, including Warwick, has been awarded the prestigious Breakthrough Prize for Fundamental Physics, for their role in the discovery and study of neutrino oscillation.

The Warwick T2K group, led by Dr Gary Barker and Dr. Steve Boyd, were one of the founding members of the T2K collaboration. They constructed, in a lab in Warwick, a significant part of the Electromagnetic Calorimeter for the T2K Near Detector and have made various contributions to the physics analysis that this prize rewards - 6 PhD's have been completed since 2011 based on T2K data.

The prize, presented by the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, was awarded 'for the fundamental discovery of neutrino oscillations, revealing a new frontier beyond, and possibly far beyond, the standard model of particle physics'. Dr Gary Barker,Physics, said:

This announcement rewards an enormous team effort as T2K consists of around 500 collaborators from 59 institutes in 11 countries around the World and recognises the importance of understanding the role that neutrinos play in fundamental physics."

Find out more about Warwick T2K group.

The 2015 Breakthrough Prize ceremony was broadcast on Discovery, Science and BBC World News. Watch clips from the ceremony here.