Belgian-American physicist Francis Halzen, aged 82, has been named the recipient of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics, as announced in Stockholm on Tuesday. The award committee highlighted Halzen’s significant contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin, located at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica.
Halzen’s breakthrough came from his realization that the ice at the South Pole could be utilized to track neutrinos, often referred to as “ghost particles” due to their ability to pass through matter without leaving a trace, interacting with it exceptionally rarely.
According to Eva Olsson from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, these neutrinos act as messengers from distant galaxies, shedding light on the processes of exploding stars. The Nobel Physics Prize, amounting to 12 million Swedish crowns ($1.7 million Cdn), is annually awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, covering a cubic kilometer, commenced operations in 2011, realizing a vision that originated in the late 1980s for the South Pole observatory. Halzen expressed gratitude to his collaborators over the years, acknowledging the initial skepticism about the project’s success.
Affiliated with the University of Wisconsin–Madison for several decades, Halzen expressed his delight and surprise at the announcement while attending a conference in Italy. In 2014, he was bestowed with one of the Smithsonian magazine’s Ingenuity Awards, earning the moniker “Neutrino Man.”
Neutrinos, tiny cosmic particles with minuscule mass, are constantly present, emanating from stars like the sun, with trillions passing through our bodies every second. Scientists rely on detecting the collisions of neutrinos with matter to study these elusive particles.
Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, hailed Halzen for leading an international team that developed a groundbreaking instrument, paving the way for a new era in astronomy. Plans for an extension, IceCube-Gen2, covering eight cubic kilometers of ice, are underway to enhance neutrino detection capabilities.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever congratulated Halzen for his dedication to unraveling the universe’s mysteries through the study of neutrinos. The discovery of neutrino oscillations was previously acknowledged by the Swedish academy in 2015, with Canadian scientist Dr. Arthur McDonald sharing the Nobel physics prize that year.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be unveiled on Wednesday, the literature prize on Thursday, and the peace prize on Friday, with the economics prize announcement set for October 12. The Nobel prizes, established by Alfred Nobel, are presented to laureates on December 10, commemorating Nobel’s passing.