‘God Particle’ Physicist Sells His Nobel Prize at Auction
The 1988 Nobel Prize in Physics won by American experimental physicist Leon Lederman sold at auction for $765,002.
The online auction conducted by Los Angeles-based Nate D. Sanders Auctions closed on Sunday evening.
Lederman, 92, and his wife, Ellen, decided to sell the medal after he received a diagnosis of dementia, the Associated Press reported.
Ten Nobel Prizes have been sold at auction, with only two of them put up for auction by a living prize winner.
Lederman won the Nobel Prize for Physics with Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberge for their discovery of the muon neutrino, a subatomic particle. He also won the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1982 and the U.S. National Medal of Science. He is a member of the board of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel.
He is credited with coining the nickname the “God particle” for the Higgs Boson subatomic particle, a term which he used in a 1993 book promoting support for the Superconducting Super Collider.
Lederman used his prize money to buy a vacation home in Driggs, Idaho, where he now lives permanently, according to the AP.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!