ANN ARBOR--Professor Gordon Kane, Victor Weisskopf Distinguished University Professor of Physics and Director Emeritus, Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, was awarded the 2017 American Physical Society J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics, “for instrumental contributions to the theory of the properties, reactions, and signatures of the Higgs boson.” The prize recognizes and encourages outstanding achievement in particle theory.

Professor Kane has worked for over 50 years on enhancing our understanding of the fundamental structure of matter. He focuses on ways to test, extend, and strengthen the very successful Standard Model of Particle Physics in his research. He has particularly emphasized the supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model, along with methods for discovering and understanding the Higgs sector. He has made several testable predictions from compactified M theory, including anticipating correctly the mass and decay branching ratios of the Higgs boson, and CERN Large Hadron Collider predictions for discovery of certain super-partners in the run now underway.

Professor Kane is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the British Institute of Physics. Professor Kane was awarded the 2012 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society.

The J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics was endowed in 1984 as a memorial to and in recognition of the accomplishments of J. J. Sakurai by the family and friends of J. J. Sakurai.