Unassuming physicist Professor Peter Higgs ahead of his time

Professor Peter Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics (David Cheskin/PA)

For decades, Professor Peter Higgs was as unknown to most of the world as the particle that bears his name.

It was in 1964 that he dreamed up what would become known as the Higgs boson but the quiet physicist waited for science to catch up with his ground-breaking ideas for almost 50 years.