Bose Institute’s ALICE Team Honored with 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Physics

The Experimental High Energy Physics (HEP) Group at Bose Institute (BI), Kolkata has achieved global recognition with the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics 2025.

The Experimental High Energy Physics (HEP) Group at Bose Institute (BI), Kolkata has achieved global recognition with the prestigious Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics 2025. This honor comes as part of the wider acknowledgment of the ALICE collaboration at CERN, one of the four major experimental groups at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Geneva.

The prize—often referred to as the "Oscars of Science"—carries a total of $3 million, jointly awarded to over 13,000 scientists representing four major collaborations at the LHC: ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb. Among them, ALICE, a collaboration of 1,869 researchers from across the globe, received $500,000, with Bose Institute being India’s only autonomous DST institution contributing to ALICE at CERN.

A Celebrated Team of Physicists

The HEP group at Bose Institute currently comprises:

• Prof. Supriya Das

• Dr. Sidharth Kumar Prasad

• Dr. Saikat Biswas

• Dr. Sanchari Thakur (Postdoctoral Fellow)

• Mr. Mintu Haldar (Senior Research Fellow)

This vibrant team is the latest in a line of dedicated Indian physicists involved with ALICE since Bose Institute formally joined the collaboration under the leadership of Prof. Sibaji Raha, former Director of the Institute, who served as the Principal Investigator.

The announcement was met with resounding appreciation from across the scientific community. Prof. Kaustuv Sanyal, the current Director of Bose Institute, extended his heartfelt congratulations to the team, saying:

“This is a great achievement not only for the Bose Institute team but also for the entire community of Indian high energy physicists working in mega science projects such as ALICE at CERN. Such awards will encourage young minds to join this kind of complex and large experimental programs for exploration of new physics.”

Bose Institute’s Role in ALICE

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is dedicated to studying Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP)—an exotic state of matter that existed microseconds after the Big Bang. Bose Institute has played a critical role in a wide array of ALICE activities, including:

• Detector hardware development

• Software simulation and data analysis

• Real-time experiment operations

• Post-data collection calibration and quality control

A Key Innovation: The Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD)

One of Bose Institute’s landmark contributions was the design, development, and operation of the Photon Multiplicity Detector (PMD), a proportional counter-based, highly granular detector built indigenously. The PMD was part of ALICE from 2008 to 2018, and was primarily responsible for detecting inclusive photons at forward rapidity.

From 2014 until its decommissioning in 2018, Bose Institute led the operation of the PMD. Following the data collection phase, BI researchers took charge of cleaning, calibrating, and assuring the quality of PMD data to optimize it for physics analysis. The project engaged not only BI faculty but also students from various Indian universities collaborating under the ALICE umbrella.

Leading the Frontier with Time Projection Chamber (TPC) Upgrade

As ALICE moved into its high-luminosity phase, Bose Institute researchers also contributed to the upgrade of the ALICE Time Projection Chamber (TPC). The new TPCs now utilize Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) technology—a Micro-Pattern Gas Detector (MPGD) method that offers:

• Suppressed ion backflow

• High energy resolution

• Operational longevity

BI scientists were instrumental in the design, construction, and integration of the TPC’s 4-GEM foil-based readout chambers, helping ALICE prepare for more intense collision environments.

Scientific Leadership and Contributions

The faculty and research trainees at Bose Institute have consistently demonstrated leadership in the ALICE Physics program, contributing to six lead-authored publications and numerous co-authored ALICE papers. Their studies span a wide range of physics topics, reinforcing India’s intellectual footprint on the global scientific map.

In addition to the core HEP team, several other researchers affiliated with Bose Institute also contributed to ALICE, including:

• Prof. Sanjay Kumar Ghosh

• Dr. Rathijit Biswas

• Dr. Abhi Modak

• Dr. Debjani Banerjee

• Dr. Prottoy Das

• Dr. Md. Asif Bhatt

Their work reflects a culture of collaborative excellence and scientific rigor, contributing to ALICE's vast body of research derived from LHC’s Run-2 data between 2015 and July 15, 2024.

Recognition from the ALICE Collaboration

In a message to the community, Prof. Marco Van Leeuwen, ALICE Spokesperson, commended all collaborators:

“I would like to congratulate the entire collaboration and the LHC community for this well-deserved recognition of the scientific advancements achieved through our collective efforts. All authors of publications based on Run 2 data up to 15 July 2024 will be listed as laureates.”

About the Breakthrough Prize

Founded by tech entrepreneurs including Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan & Mark Zuckerberg, and Yuri Milner, the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics honors profound contributions to human understanding of the Universe. The 2025 award highlights the collaborative power of large-scale scientific endeavors like those at CERN.

The prize money has been distributed as follows:

• ATLAS – $1,000,000 (5,345 researchers)

• CMS – $1,000,000 (4,550 researchers)

• ALICE – $500,000 (1,869 researchers)

• LHCb – $500,000 (1,744 researchers)

As part of its long-term vision, the Breakthrough Foundation will also fund prize-linked studentships, enabling selected PhD students to conduct research at CERN for up to two years, a move that will help nurture the next generation of physicists.