The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Belgian-American physicist Francis Halzen. As announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday, the physicist was honoured with this highest distinction in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the ‘IceCube Neutrino Observatory’ and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from cosmic sources.
Born in 1944 in Tienen, Belgium, Halzen is currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. He played a pioneering role in establishing the ‘IceCube Neutrino Observatory’ in Antarctica at the South Pole to search for the universe’s mysterious and hidden neutrino particles. He first proposed the idea that Antarctica’s vast layers of white ice could be used as a detector. By installing thousands of light sensors several kilometres deep in the ice, his research—which identifies high-energy cosmic sources through the intense light created by neutrino collisions—has opened a new direction in physics known as ‘Neutrino Astronomy’.
Notably, in accordance with Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Prize in Physics, which has been awarded since 1901, will this year be accompanied by 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately ₹9.6 crore). In the previous year, 2025, the prize was jointly awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their groundbreaking discovery of macroscopic quantum tunnelling.
