Nobel physics prize goes to the scientist who turned Antarctic ice into a telescope
Francis Halzen led IceCube, which catches “ghost particles” from black holes and distant galaxies at the South Pole.
Known
-Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin–Madison won the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics. It was announced in Stockholm on 6 October 2026. -The prize is for his work on IceCube and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos from outer space. -IceCube is a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice fitted with thousands of light sensors. It is funded by the US National Science Foundation.
Not known yet
-Which objects in the universe make most of the high-energy neutrinos IceCube sees. -What the newly upgraded IceCube will find first.
At the South Pole, a cubic kilometre of ice has been turned into a telescope that looks for something no one can see.
On 6 October the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences gave the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics to Francis Halzen, the University of Wisconsin–Madison professor who led it. The prize recognises his work on astrophysical neutrinos.
A telescope made of ice
Halzen is the principal investigator of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, funded by the US National Science Foundation. The university calls it the world's largest telescope: a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice fitted with thousands of light sensors.
Neutrinos are tiny particles that almost never touch other matter, which is why they are called "ghost particles". Very rarely one hits the ice and gives off a faint flash of light. IceCube's sensors wait for those flashes.
Halzen joined the UW–Madison physics faculty in 1972. He oversaw the design of IceCube and of AMANDA, the smaller experiment that came before it.
Why it matters
Neutrinos travel in straight lines, so each one points back to where it came from. That lets scientists look at violent places in the universe that light alone cannot show.
IceCube's record, according to the university:
- 2013: the first detection of high-energy neutrinos from outside the solar system.
- September 2017: a neutrino from a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy, toward the constellation Orion.
- 2022: neutrinos from an active galaxy 47 million light-years away.
- 2023: neutrinos from our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
"A very unusual project"
"This is a celebration of a very unusual project," Halzen said in the university's announcement.
He is the sixth physicist connected to UW–Madison to win a Nobel Prize. The university counts 23 Nobel prizes tied to it.
What comes next
IceCube has just been upgraded, its first significant expansion in 15 years.