Nobel Laureate, Professor Carlo Rubbia, was appointed as an Honorary Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers at its Court meeting on 27th April 2022.
Professor Rubbia is an Italian particle physicist and inventor who is distinguished for having shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 (with Simon van der Meer) for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN. Physicists and engineers at CERN depend on the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments in their investigations of fundamental particles that are the basic constituents of matter, providing deep insights into the fundamental laws of nature.
Carlo was, in 1970, appointed Higgins Professor of Physics at Harvard University, where also he spent time over the next two decades, while continuing his work at CERN and in 1989, he was appointed Director-General of CERN. It is notable that in 1993, the agreement by CERN to allow the unrestricted use of the Web protocol free of charge opened up the internet as we see it today.
Carlo holds many honorary doctorates (including one from City, University of London) and he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1984. In 2013, he was appointed to the Senate of Italy as a Senator for Life and more unusually Asteroid 8398 Rubbia is named in his honour.
Text by Past Master, Prof K V T Grattan and photo by Peter Roger