The Nobel Committee Can't Seem To Locate Prize Winner Peter Higgs

Dina SpectorOct 8, 2013, 17:36 IST

REUTERS/David Moir Professor Peter Higgs poses for a photograph following a news conference at the launch of The University of Edinburgh's new Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics.

Peter Higgs and Francois Englert won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider."

Winners are generally informed of their award through a morning call from Stockholm.

In a live phone interview on Tuesday, Englert said it is "not unpleasant" to have received the award.

But Higgs was noticeably absent.

The Royal Academy of Science wasn't even able to reach the 84-year-old British physicist by phone.

This isn't a total shocker. As The New York Times wrote on Monday: "Dr. Higgs - the J. D. Salinger of physics - has already let it be known that he will not be available in any form on Tuesday."

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The Nobel Committee Can't Seem To Locate Prize Winner Peter Higgs