Has the Higgs Boson Been Discovered? Latest Results from the ATLAS Experiment at the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN has had a very successful first data taking run that ended in December 2012. The ATLAS detector has collected about 25 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The LHC is the highest energy particle accelerator in the world. The highest profile result has been the announcement of the discovery of a new particle at a mass of about 125 GeV/c$^{2}$, consistent with the long sought Higgs Boson. I will start by describing why there is such excitement about this discovery and why it is not just ``another'' new particle -- if it is indeed the Higgs Boson, it is not only the last missing piece of the Standard Model, but represents a fundamentally new type of particle. The discovery comes after almost two decades of construction of the particle accelerator (LHC) and some of the most complex scientific instruments ever built. I will focus on and describe the ATLAS detector and how it works. The ATLAS experiment, together with CMS experiment, announced the discovery of this new particle in July 2012. I will present the latest results on the properties of this new ``Higgs-like'' particle and the prospects for future discoveries at the LHC.