ANN ARBOR—Physicists from the University of Michigan who have been integral to the search for the Higgs boson are available to comment on any results announced at CERN’s upcoming seminar.

The Higgs boson is the missing piece of particle physics’ Standard Model. For the past four years, more than 1,000 scientists from all over the world have been hunting for it with the Large Hadron Collider, a particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland.

More than a dozen U-M researchers and graduate students are currently involved. More than 60 U-M undergraduate students worked with U-M scientists and engineers to design, build and operate vital components of the camera-like ATLAS detector that was one of the two detectors being used to look for the Higgs.

On July 4, beginning at 3 a.m. EDT (9 a.m. Central European Time) scientists from ATLAS and CMS, the other detector involved in the search, will give statements at CERN in Switzerland. These U-M physicists are available to comment after the announcements:

Jianming Qian, professor of physics, leads the Higgs search analysis on the sensitive but complicated WW decay channel. His group also has a leading role combing various search channels to produce final combination results. Qian, who is currently at CERN, predicted in May that the Higgs would be found this summer. Read the full story at http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/20417. He can be reached at [email protected].

Bing Zhou, associate professor of physics, led the U.S. ATLAS development and construction of detector components called muon detectors, which were designed to play a lead role in discovering the Higgs. Zhou, along with other Michigan faculty, scientists and students, has been analyzing the ZZ decay channel. She will be available after 8 a.m. EDT on July 4 at (734) 647-3740 or [email protected].

Related press release (with videos): Homing in on Higgs: Michigan researchers predict summer discovery