Particle Physics 2012

6 | IntroductionParticle physics in 2012 was marked by a centennial discovery: a new fundamental particle, a Higgs boson, was observed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN near Geneva. It was a truly remarkable, worldwide event on 4 July, when the ATLAS and CMS collaborations presented their results at CERN and in live transmissions to all major particle physics laboratories. The audience in the crowded DESY auditorium burst out in spontaneous applause, as did people in many places around the globe. This discovery raised extraordinary public interest and received unprecedented news coverage – at least for a scientific event. I am sure that it will give a boost to our field, and I am very glad that we at DESY were able to contribute in various, important ways to this success.