Nobel Prize winner Professor Peter Higgs plans to retire

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Professor Peter Higgs has said he plans to retire next year at the age of 85.

Professor Higgs also revealed that he had previously turned down a knighthood.

“I got the offer from Tony Blair in November 1999,” he said. “I would have been included in the millennium honours and I said no thank you.”

The 84-year-old was recognised by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his work on the theory of the particle which shares his name, the Higgs boson.

The existence of the so-called “God particle” said to give matter its substance, or mass was proved 50 years on by a team from the European nuclear research facility Cern in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2012.

Professor Higgs retired from teaching 17 years ago but is an emeritus professor at Edinburgh University and travels internationally to give lectures.

“I’m proposing to retire at the age of 85 next year,” he said.