THE North-East professor who gave his name to the so called God particle made a triumphant return to the region yesterday, as he was honoured by its leading university.

Newcastle-born Professor Peter Higgs, 83, gave his name to the Higgs boson, which scientists at the Large Hadron Collider – the £2.6bn Big Bang atom-smasher near Geneva, Switzerland – believe they discovered in July, having hit on the concept as early as the 1960s.

Yesterday, he was the focus of a special presentation from Durham University.

Vice-chancellor Professor Chris Higgins awarded him a multi-coloured glass sculpture in the theoretical shape of the Higgs boson.

Prof Higgs said: “It’s a great pleasure to be back in Durham after many years. It’s a pleasure to be among old friends – people who I’ve known since the mid 1950s – still looking alive and kicking.”

He said life had been rather overwhelming since July’s discovery, but he was hoping to return to the North-East next March for a science festival in Newcastle.

Prof Higgs was invited to Durham to mark the tenth anniversary of the Ogden Centre, an internationallyrenowned research centre for fundamental physics. Experts at Durham’s Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP), one of its two research institutes, have been providing the theory and analysis behind a number of Large Hadron Collider experiments.

IPPP Professor Nigel Glover said: “We are delighted to have Prof Higgs here for the tenth anniversary of the Ogden Centre. The recently announced discovery at Cern of a new particle compatible with the one proposed by Prof Higgs nearly 50 years ago is an incredible triumph.

“It closes a chapter in our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature, but it is not the end of the book.

“The next chapter promises to be even more exciting as we seek to understand exactly what has been discovered. We look forward to the IPPP playing its role in that during the coming second decade of the Ogden Centre’s existence.”

The Higgs boson gives matter mass and holds the physical fabric of the universe together.

Prof Higgs, who is retired from Edinburgh University, first came up with the theory in 1964 while walking in the Cairngorms.