The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics to Belgian-American physicist Francis Halzen for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the detection of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics to Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.
Halzen, 82, proposed using South Pole ice as a detector for neutrinos, particles that rarely interact with matter. IceCube instruments about a cubic kilometre of ice with light sensors and has recorded neutrinos from energetic cosmic processes, the Academy said. The prize is 12 million Swedish kronor.
Reuters reported from Stockholm that the Academy credited Halzen with opening a new kind of astronomy. Committee chair Mark Pearce said Halzen's tenacity and scientific vision had produced a new instrument for studying the universe.
An expansion, IceCube-Gen2, covering about 8 cubic kilometres, is planned to begin operating in 2033 and is expected to detect far more neutrinos, including weaker ones, Reuters reported. Halzen told reporters the main scientific returns were still ahead.
The physics prize is the first of this year's Nobel announcements. The Peace Prize is scheduled for Friday.
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- Academy officials described the work as opening a new era of astronomy.
- Halzen said the main results of the experiment were still to come.