Nobel laureate physicist Francois Englert dies at 93

Belgian theoretical physicist Francois Englert, a 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics laureate, has died at the age of 93. The Free University of Brussels (ULB), where Englert previously worked, announced the news, noting his passing on June 18, 2026. Born on November 6, 1932, in Etterbeek, Brussels, Englert was a significant figure in particle physics. He was recognized for his work on the Higgs boson, the particle that provides mass to other elements within the Standard Model. Together with British physicist Peter Higgs, who died in 2024, Englert established the theoretical framework in 1964 that led to the discovery of the boson at CERN in 2012. Throughout his career, he collaborated with Robert Brout, with whom he directed the Department of Theoretical Physics in Belgium. Englert held a doctorate in theoretical physics and had also studied as a civil engineer.