UNLOCKING MATTER: UP physicist, co-researchers bag prize in fundamental physics

A physicist from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman is a part of the group of researchers who won one of the world's most prestigious honors in fundamental physics.

Dr. Marvin Flores, professor at the National Institute of Physics (NIP), UP Diliman, and the team leader of the A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS (ATLAS) group in the Philippines, is among the 13,508 researchers worldwide that were awarded the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their work in the ATLAS Collaboration at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN. 

Recognized for revolutionary work, the ATLAS Collaboration explored high-energy collisions at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The ATLAS Collaboration includes critical studies on the Higgs boson and efforts to explore physics beyond the Standard Model, the theory behind what explains how particles and forces interact.

ATLAS is one of the biggest and most advanced scientific machines ever built. 

According to the NIP, the project was 40 metres in length and around 25 metres in height, and was designed to investigate the fundamental building blocks of matter and the forces governing our universe. 

Since 2021, Flores and the NIP have played active roles in the ATLAS experiment, focusing on the search for new physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). 

Their work aimed to uncover mysteries that the Standard Model cannot fully answer, such as dark matter and other unknown particles or forces.

“Our team’s work on BSM modelling and simulation exemplifies the innovation driving ATLAS forward,” Flores said. 

The prize was shared with its three sister experiments, the A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE), Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), and Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb).

As the ATLAS Collaboration celebrates its Breakthrough Prize win, its eyes are set on the future. 

The LHC is now in its third run, and work is already in full swing to upgrade it to the High-Luminosity LHC, which will be a more powerful version that will allow scientists to gather even more data and make deeper discoveries.

“We are now preparing the ATLAS detectors of the future — designed to harness this unprecedented data and further push our understanding of the universe’s fundamental building blocks,” ATLAS Collaboration spokesperson Stephane Willocq said.

The global recognition received by Flores and the ATLAS team is not just a milestone, but a proud moment for Filipino minds who are aiming to pioneer worldwide.