Dr. Fawaz Al-Azmi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the College of Science, Kuwait University, has been awarded the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (breakthroughprize.org) as a member of the CMS team affiliated with the international CERN organization.
This prestigious award recognizes the outstanding scientific contributions of the CMS team in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment, including the measurement of the Higgs boson’s properties, the study of rare phenomena, and the exploration of the universe’s structure at its most fundamental level.
Dr. Al-Azmi's contribution to the CMS team stems from his research work during his academic sabbatical in 2022–2023, which he spent at CERN with support from the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). During this period, Dr. Al-Azmi also supervised students participating in the 2023 CERN Summer Program and became a co-author of peer-reviewed CMS experiment research papers as part of the CMS Collaboration. His contributions and efforts with CERN continue to this day.
Kuwait University’s involvement in these achievements is the result of a cooperation agreement with CERN, funded by KFAS, which supports research collaboration between the two institutions and enhances the participation of Kuwaiti researchers in major international projects.
It is worth noting that CERN is the world's largest research center in particle physics, bringing together thousands of scientists and engineers from around the globe in a wide-ranging international collaboration. Their goal is to develop, operate, and maintain massive and complex scientific instruments and to push the boundaries of scientific knowledge.
This achievement raises the profile of Kuwait University and enhances its standing within the global scientific community. It also reflects the university’s commitment to international research collaboration and meaningful contributions to pioneering scientific projects.