The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 physics Nobel to Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for IceCube and the detection of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday 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.
The prize citation says Halzen realised Antarctic ice could be used to track neutrinos. IceCube instruments a cubic kilometre of South Pole ice with light sensors. The award is 12 million Swedish kronor, the Nobel Foundation said.
Halzen, 82, a Belgian-born US citizen, told reporters he was surprised the idea worked as well as it did. He said few people, including himself at the start, expected the project to succeed. He first set out the South Pole concept in 1988, according to BBC reporting of the announcement.
Neutrinos rarely interact with matter and can carry information from violent cosmic events that ordinary telescopes cannot easily see. Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said Halzen's leadership had given researchers a new kind of astronomy.
An expansion known as IceCube-Gen2, covering about 8 cubic kilometres of ice and planned to begin operating in 2033, is expected to detect far more neutrinos, Reuters reported. Halzen said the main scientific results of the work were still ahead.
People Sentiments Positive
- Halzen said he was lucky the experiment worked
- Pearce called IceCube a fantastic instrument
- Academy highlighted a new window on the high-energy universe