Belgian Physicist Wins Nobel Prize for Antarctic Ice Detector
82-year-old Belgian physicist Francis Halzen has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics.
82-year-old Belgian physicist Francis Halzen has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The scientist received the prize for his major contribution to the creation of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica and for the detection of high-energy neutrinos of cosmic origin.
IceCube is one of the world’s largest neutrino detectors. Located at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, the facility consists of light-sensitive sensors installed in approximately one cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice.
Neutrinos interact very weakly with matter, making them extremely difficult to detect. However, these particles carry important information about the most energetic processes in the Universe.
Halzen first proposed the idea for IceCube in 1988. The detector was completed in 2011. He currently serves as a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and heads the Institute for Particle Physics.
Halzen said that receiving the Nobel Prize came as a major surprise to him.