The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Francis Halzen for his major contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, which led to the discovery of high-energy neutrinos originating in space.
It was Halzen who realised that South Pole ice could track neutrinos. His vision and scientific leadership underpin the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic kilometre of ice packed with light sensors. According to the jury, it allows scientists to capture neutrinos from extremely energy-rich events far across the universe.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory tracks neutrinos that originate in the distant cosmos.
“The neutrino interactions that are continuously collected by IceCube will provide researchers with novel knowledge about the violent settings in which high-energy neutrinos can be created – and could even reveal previously unknown cosmic phenomena,” the award-giving body said.
Nobel Prize in Physics 2025 winners
John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M Martinis won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.”
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the laureates used a series of experiments to demonstrate that the bizarre properties of the quantum world can be made concrete in a system big enough to be held in the hand.
“Their superconducting electrical system could tunnel from one state to another, as if it were passing straight through a wall. They also showed that the system absorbed and emitted energy in doses of specific sizes, just as predicted by quantum mechanics,” the release said.
Nobel Prize in Medicine
Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
According to a press release issued by the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, the prize recognises discoveries that laid the foundation for optogenetics, a method that makes it possible to show how nerve cells shape memories, feelings and behaviours in the living brain.
Deisseroth is associated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University in the US, while Hegemann is affiliated with Humboldt University of Berlin and Nagel with the University of Würzburg, both in Germany.
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According to the press release, the work began with Hegemann’s efforts to understand how the single-celled alga ‘Chlamydomonas’ is able to swim towards a light source. In the early 2000s, Hegemann and Nagel discovered channelrhodopsin, an algal protein with unique properties that is located on the surface of the cell.
When exposed to blue light, channel-rhodopsin opens a channel through which charged ions can flow into the cell, generating an electrical impulse. The researchers found that introducing the protein into other cells could make those cells sensitive to light.
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