Francis Halzen awarded for “decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory” (Image credit: Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences)
Born in Tienen, Belgium, in 1944, Halzen has played a central role in the development of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, a massive detector designed to study elusive neutrinos.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 has been awarded to Francis Halzen for “decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Tuesday. His work helped establish the detection of high-energy neutrinos originating from astrophysical sources, opening a new way of observing and studying the universe.
The Nobel Prize in Physics was one of the prizes established in Alfred Nobel’s will in 1895.
Nobel dedicated one part of his fortune to the person who had made the “most important discovery or invention within the field of physics”. Meawnhile, last year John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M Martinis won the Physics Nobel “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit”.