by Gustaaf Grooijmans (Columbia University)
From a particle physics point of view, the past thirty years can rightfully be considered as the golden age of the standard model. Both the theoretical and experimental knowledge of the structure of the strong and electroweak interactions has reached impressive levels of precision, and the agreement between experimental results and theoretical predictions is stunning. The standard model doesn't tell us anything about the nature of the particles whose interactions it describes however. We hope that data taken at the LHC starting in 2010 will allow us to develop some understanding of the origin of particle properties. According to some models we will learn about particle masses through the discovery of the Higgs boson, while others suggest that dynamics in additional spatial dimensions might be the source of specific properties. This talk will review some key aspects of our current knowledge and how it was acquired, followed by some speculation about what might happen at the LHC. New experimental techniques needed in the new kinematic domain will be discussed.