Francis Halzen wins Nobel Prize in Physics

Francis Halzen, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his leading role at a particle research lab in Antarctica built from a cubic kilometer of ice.

This year's recipient was announced in Stockholm on Tuesday. The Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Ellen Moons, said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics to Halzen "for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin."

In 1988, Halzen proposed using ice at the South Pole to track high-energy neutrinos.

Researchers installed more than 5,000 sensors deep in the Antarctic ice to capture the faint light produced when neutrinos interact with it.

The Nobel committee said Halzen's vision and scientific leadership have been fundamental to the observatory, which was completed in 2011.

The committee said the data collected at IceCube will provide researchers with new information about the violent settings in which neutrinos can be created and could even reveal previously unknown cosmic phenomena.

The IceCube project involves participants from 14 countries, including researchers from Chiba University in Japan.