John Huth

Professor Huth has worked in the field of elementary particle physics for nearly fifty years, first with electron-positron collisions at the positron-electron project (PEP) using the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) detector, then at the Fermilab Tevatron in proton-anti-proton collisions with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF), and currently at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in proton-proton collisions with the ATLAS Experiment.  

Notably, he collaborated on the discovery of the top quark with CDF data, and on the discovery of the Higgs boson with ATLAS data. In addition, he collaborated with Prof. Matt Schwartz on ways of probing the Higgs decay into a pair of b-quarks. The observation of this decay mode was announced in 2018.  

He has a developing interest in the practice of non-instrument navigation. He teaches a General Education Course on the topic, Finding Our Way (Gen Ed 1031). In 2013 he published a companion book, The Lost Art of Finding Our Way. This work led to investigations of the tradition of wave-piloting in the Marshall Islands. In 2025, he published a follow-on book inspired by his collaboration with anthropologists and cognitive psychologists, A Sense of Space: A Local’s Guide to a Flat Earth, the Edge of the Cosmos, and Other Curious Places. In addition he developed an EdX online course, Backyard Meteorology, based on a unit in Gen Ed 1031.  

Prof. Huth was Chair of the Dept. from 2002 to 2006.    

A CV can be found here.