Physicist Peter Higgs Who Discovered 'God Particle' Dies At 94

Peter Higgs's 1964 theory of a mass-giving particle, which became known as the Higgs boson or the "God particle", won him and Belgian physicist Francois Englert the 2013 physics Nobel Prize.

British physicist Peter Higgs, whose theory of a mass-giving particle -- the so-called Higgs boson -- jointly earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics, has died aged 94, the University of Edinburgh announced on Tuesday.

"He passed away peacefully at home on Monday 8 April following a short illness," the Scottish university, where he had been a professor for nearly five decades, said in a statement.

It called him "a great teacher and mentor, inspiring generations of young scientists".