Francis Halzen wins Nobel Prize in Physics for neutrino research

Belgian-born scientist Francis Halzen won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and his discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award in Stockholm, praising Halzen for leading an international team of researchers and engineers who developed the observatory, which has opened a new field of astronomy.

“His tenacity and scientific vision has paved the way for a new kind of astronomy,” Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in a statement.

Halzen, 82, is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States, which is the lead institution behind the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The facility is located at the South Pole in Antarctica.

Halzen’s research into detecting neutrinos at the South Pole dates back to the 1980s.

Neutrinos are subatomic particles that can travel through matter with little interaction, allowing scientists to study energetic events in the universe.

The Nobel Prize comes with 12 million Swedish kronor, worth about $1.2 million, to be shared if the award is given to multiple laureates.

The Nobel announcements began on Monday with the medicine prize.

The chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday, followed by the literature prize on Thursday, the peace prize on Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences next Monday.