Belgian-American Physicist Francis Halzen Awarded 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for IceCube Neutrino Discovery

Key facts

• Belgian-American particle physicist Francis Halzen won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics, announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.
• The prize carries an award of 12 million Swedish kronor, about $1.2 million.
• Halzen, born on March 23, 1944, in Tienen, Belgium, is an 82-year-old professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and principal investigator of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole in Antarctica.
• He has worked on Antarctic neutrino detection since 1987, starting with the AMANDA experiment, and pushed for IceCube, which became fully operational in 2010 and covers about one cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice.
• IceCube's major breakthrough came in 2013 with the first clear detection of high-energy neutrinos from sources beyond the Milky Way, with energies exceeding particles produced by the Large Hadron Collider.
• Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said Halzen's tenacity and scientific vision paved the way for a new kind of astronomy.
• Halzen studied at the University of Louvain, earning his master's degree in 1966 and PhD in 1969, worked at CERN from 1969 to 1971, and joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1972.
• His earlier honours include the Physics World Breakthrough of the Year Award (2013), the Balzan Prize and Cocconi Prize (2015), the Bruno Pontecorvo Prize (2018), the Yodh Prize (2019), the Homi Bhabha Medal and Prize (2021), election to the US National Academy of Sciences (2024), and the APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research (2026).
• He is co-author of the widely used particle physics textbook Quarks and Leptons.