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Belgian American particle physicist Francis Halzen was announced as the winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday in Stockholm.<\/p>\n
Halzen, 82, was recognized for “decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of \u200castrophysical origin,” the award-giving body said. The observatory is located at Amundsen\u2013Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica.<\/p>\n
Halzen realized that ice at the South Pole could be used to track \u200cneutrinos, sometimes known as “ghost particles” for the way they pass through the Earth and our bodies without a trace, only interacting with matter extremely rarely.<\/p>\n
“The messengers bring information from the cosmos,” Eva Olsson, of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, told a news conference. “They open the door to distant galaxies and tell us about the \u200bprocesses of exploding stars.”<\/p>\n
The winners \u2060of the \u2060Nobel \u200cphysics prize are selected annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences \u2060and receive a prize sum totalling 12 million Swedish \u200ccrowns ($1.7 million Cdn).<\/p>\n
The IceCube, which covers an entire cubic kilometre, became operational in 2011 \u2014 the culmination of a vision for the South Pole observatory, the academy said, that began in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n
Halzen, affiliated for several decades with the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison in the U.S., told the academy by phone he was “delighted” and “surprised” by the announcement, which came as he was attending a conference in Italy. <\/p>\n
In 2014, the U.S.-based Smithsonian magazine, dubbed Halzen “Neutrino Man” when giving him one of its Ingenuity Awards.<\/p>\n
Clues to the universe<\/p>\n
Neutrinos are omnipresent, tiny cosmic particles with a mind-bogglingly small mass. They spew from stars like the sun and trillions zip through our bodies every second.<\/p>\n
Scientists can’t glimpse the mysterious ghost particles on their own. Instead, they measure what happens when the tiny particles collide with other bits of matter, producing flashes of light or charged particles.<\/p>\n
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A view of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole is seen in this undated handout image. (Marc Jacquart\/IceCube\/NSF\/Reuters)<\/p>\n
Halzen studied a rare gang of neutrinos that scientists consider messengers from the cosmos, offering clues to how the universe evolved.<\/p>\n
“Francis Halzen has led an international team of \u200bresearchers and engineers who have provided us with a fantastic instrument,” Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee \u2060for Physics, said in a statement. “His \u2060tenacity and scientific vision has paved the way for a new \u200ckind of astronomy.”<\/p>\n