Michael Andrew Parker (born 1956) is a British physicist and academic. He is Professor of

High Energy Physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons, while the stu ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He is the incumbent

Master Master, master's or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles In education: *Master (college), head of a college *Master's degree, a postgraduate or sometimes undergraduate degree in the specified discipline *Schoolmaster or master, presiding office ...

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...

, having succeeded Bridget Kendall in 2023. Parker is involved with

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, ...

project, and was previously the head of the department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

Early life and education

Parker was born in Bristol and attended

Queen Elizabeth's Hospital Queen Elizabeth's Hospital (also known as QEH) is a 7–18 private boys' day school in Clifton, Bristol, England, founded in 1586. QEH is named after its original patron, Queen Elizabeth I. Known traditionally as "The City School", Queen Eliz ...

, Bristol. He graduated in 1978 with a Class II degree in Physics from

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

. He then obtained a PhD in particle physics from

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Career

Parker began working at

as a summer student, and was a permanent member of staff from 1982 until 1989. Parker was heavily involved in the

ATLAS experiment ATLAS is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The experiment is designed to take advantage of ...

at the CERN

, which was responsible for the discovery of the

Higgs boson The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the excited state, quantum excitation of the Higgs field, one of the field (physics), fields in particl ...

in 2012. He has continued his association with CERN since, and has sat on numerous committees and advisory panels. Parker began working at the

in 1989, becoming a fellow of

Peterhouse Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...

. He was appointed Professor of Physics in 2004 and became head of the

, the university's department of physics, in 2013. He remained in this post until 2023, when he was succeeded by

Mete Atatüre Mete Atatüre (born 19 February 1975) is a Turkish physicist working on experimental solid-state quantum optics, in particular on the optical control of spin-photon coupling for quantum networks as well as investigation of many-body physics in a ...

. In addition to his work with CERN and with the Cavendish Laboratory, Parker has worked with the

Addenbrooke's Hospital Addenbrooke's Hospital is a large teaching hospital and research centre in Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county to ...

Department of Oncology on applying particle physics software solutions to radiotherapy. In 2023, it was announced that Parker was to succeed Bridget Kendall as Master of

. He was formally appointed Master in July 2023.

References

External links

Faculty website
British physicists Scientists of the Cavendish Laboratory Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge Fellows of the Institute of Physics Living people 1956 births {{UK-physicist-stub People associated with CERN