Physicist Among Winners of Prestigious Award

Westmont scientist Ben Carlson joins thousands of researchers worldwide honored with the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, which recognizes the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as several related experiments.

The Breakthrough Prize specifically highlights the ATLAS Collaboration’s significant contributions to particle physics, including detailed measurements of Higgs boson properties, studies of rare processes and matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the exploration of nature under the most extreme conditions.

Carlson, assistant professor of physics at Westmont, has helped operate the trigger system, critical for collecting high-quality data and developing techniques for analysis, enabling searches for dark matter using missing transverse momentum. His students assisted him in this work. Only a few other primarily undergraduate institutions have collaborated on ATLAS research since 2021.

“The support from the ATLAS experiment for undergraduate students and their ability to drive ATLAS forward has been amazing,” Carlson said. “This recognition affirms the impact of our contributions and inspires us to continue exploring the universe’s most fundamental questions.”

One of the largest and most complex scientific instruments ever built, ATLAS investigates the fundamental building blocks of matter and the forces governing our universe.

The fourth operating period of the LHC will upgrade the High-Luminosity LHC to increase collision rates tenfold beginning in 2030. Carlson says Westmont students have the opportunity to develop new algorithms for high-speed trigger electronics that will play a crucial role in this next chapter.