ATLAS Experiment Overview and Higgs Searches

This document presents an overview of the status of the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at the time of the July 2012 ICHEP conference in Melbourne, with a strong focus on the Standard Model Higgs search. The final results from the 2011 dataset are presented, together with first results in the H->gamma gamma and H->ZZ(*)->4 leptons channels from the 2012 dataset, using the 5.8 fb^-1 of pp collision data taken at sqrt(s)=8 TeV that were available at the time of the conference. Combining both 2011 and 2012 data, a significant excess of events is seen in the Higgs search at a mass of around 126 GeV. This excess is interpreted as evidence for a new, narrow resonance, consistent with the production and decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson.