Prosper, a high-energy physics experimentalist, is among the U.S. scientists who played a significant role in the search for and 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, the particle that proves the existence of the Higgs field, which gives mass to elementary particles. His research interests include high-energy physics, cosmology, advanced analysis methods and Bayesian statistics. At Florida State, Prosper is the Kirby Kemper Professor of Physics and has been a leader in experimental high-energy physics for many years and has built a robust research record while contributing significantly to collaborations at both Fermilab and CERN. He earned a doctorate in experimental physics from the University of Manchester in 1980.