Francis Halzen wins 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics

Francis Halzen has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Francis Halzen has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

The breakthrough enabled scientists to detect high-energy neutrinos originating from deep space, providing a new way to study the universe.

Extremely high-energy cosmic neutrinos are very rare, requiring a massive detector volume — about one cubic kilometre of ice — to capture enough collisions for study.

“Francis Halzen has led an international team of researchers and engineers who have provided us with a fantastic instrument,” Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in a statement.

“His tenacity and scientific vision has paved the way for a new kind of astronomy,” he added.

Scientists using the IceCube detector detected high-energy neutrinos and later established that some originated far outside our solar system, opening a new era of astrophysical research.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory was completed in 2011 to search for neutrino sources across the universe.

Halzen, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been closely involved in the development of IceCube, a detector built deep beneath the South Pole.

Last year’s Nobel Prize in Physics went to US scientists John Clarke, Michel Devoret and John Martinis for experiments that illustrated the principles of quantum physics in action, paving the way towards new technologies including quantum computing.

The physics prize will be followed by the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday and the prize in literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, followed by the economics prize on October 12.