Francis Halzen was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for pioneering a telescope that paved the way for a new kind of astronomy. Scientists used this telescope, embedded deep in the ice at the South Pole, to detect ghostly particles whizzing from the far reaches of the universe known as high-energy neutrinos.
“It’s a way of bringing us information about distant cosmic sources, which we are unable to acquire in other ways,” Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said at the prize announcement. In a statement following the announcement, he added that Dr. Halzen had “provided us with a fantastic instrument.”
Dr. Halzen conceptualized the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in the late 1980s as a way to observe the natural particle accelerators of the cosmos, such as supermassive black holes. These events generate neutrinos at far higher energies than what can be produced on Earth.
The IceCube team, which today consists of more than 400 scientists around the world, completed construction of the telescope in 2011 and announced the discovery of high-energy neutrinos originating from far beyond our solar system two years later.
With the conception of IceCube, Dr. Halzen birthed the field of neutrino astronomy, which provides a different lens from which to explore the universe. IceCube also laid the groundwork for a suite of other neutrino telescopes around the world, including an underwater observatory that in 2023 detected the most energetic neutrino to date.
Who is the winner?
Dr. Halzen is a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He was born in 1944 in Tienen, Belgium.
Dr. Halzen called the award “a great surprise.” Addressing the news conference in Stockholm by phone from Italy, he emphasized that his work was the result of a “large collaboration” with other researchers.
The Nobel Prize earns Dr. Halzen 12 million Swedish kronor, or about $1.2 million.
Why did he receive the prize?
Neutrinos are subatomic particles that carry no electrical charge, so they pass through nearly all matter without colliding or otherwise interacting. And they are everywhere: More than a billion neutrinos, emitted by the sun, pass through the palm of your hand every second, according to Dr. Pearce.
But the most energetic neutrinos come from farther away in the universe and are rarer, making them even more difficult to catch. In 1988, Dr. Halzen presented the idea for a neutrino telescope embedded deep in the Antarctic ice and fitted with thousands of light sensors. On rare occasions, a neutrino traveling through Earth would interact with the ice and produce a flash of light, which could be detected by the telescope’s sensors.
More than two decades later, construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory was complete, spanning one cubic kilometer, or about a quarter of a cubic mile, of ice at the South Pole. In its statement, the Nobel Committee praised Mr. Halzen’s “vision and scientific leadership” for the project, which gave astronomers a fresh look at the universe.
Who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2025?
John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis shared the prize for work that made the behaviors of the subatomic world observable in a system large enough to see with the naked eye.
Who else has won a Nobel Prize this year?
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for their discovery of a transformative neuroscience tool that may one day lead to a treatment for blindness.
When will the other Nobel Prizes be announced?
The prize for physics is the second of six Nobel Prizes that will be awarded this year. Each award recognizes groundbreaking contributions by an individual or organization in a specific field.
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The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded on Wednesday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Last year, the prize went to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi for the development of molecular building blocks with spaces large enough for gases and other chemicals to flow through them.
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The Nobel Prize in Literature will be awarded on Thursday by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. Last year, Laszlo Krasznahorkai, a Hungarian novelist known for his dystopian themes and relentless prose, received the award.
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The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. Last year, María Corina Machado, who built a powerful social movement in Venezuela challenging the nation’s authoritarian president, won the award.
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Next week, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be awarded on Monday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Last year, Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt were honored for research explaining the relationship between technological progress and sustained economic growth.
All of the prize announcements are streamed live by the Nobel Prize organization.
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