Rubbia, Carlo

Rubbia, Carlo,

1934–, Italian physicist, Ph.D. Univ. of Pisa, 1957. A professor of physics at the Univ. of Rome and later at Harvard, Rubbia did his most important work with Simon van der Meervan der Meer, Simon,
1925–2011, Dutch physical engineer. He spent nearly his entire career at CERN, where he did his most important work with Carlo Rubbia. They discovered the W and Z particles, which convey the weak force, one of nature's four fundamental forces (see weak
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 at CERNCERN
or European Organization for Nuclear Research,
nuclear and particle physics research center straddling the French-Swiss border W of Geneva, Switzerland. Established in 1952 as the provisional European Center for Nuclear Research (the acronym CERN derives from this
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. The pair discovered the W and Z particlesW and Z particles,
elementary particles that mediate, or carry, the fundamental force associated with weak interactions. The discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, in the early 1980s was an important confirmation of electroweak theory,
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, which convey the weak force, one of nature's four fundamental forces (see weak interactionsweak interactions,
actions between elementary particles mediated, or carried, by W and Z particles and that are responsible for nuclear decay. Weak interactions are one of four fundamental interactions in nature, the others being gravitation, electromagnetism, and the strong interactions.
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). For their discovery, the pair was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics. Rubbia also led a research team that produced theoretical evidence for a sixth quark, called "top" (see elementary particleselementary particles,
the most basic physical constituents of the universe. Basic Constituents of Matter

Molecules are built up from the atom, which is the basic unit of any chemical element. The atom in turn is made from the proton, neutron, and electron.
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).