The University of Wisconsin-Madison physicist was recognized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his role in detecting high-energy neutrinos that originate beyond Earth.
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| The Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 was announced Tuesday in Stockholm. |
Francis Halzen has won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award on Tuesday, October 6, saying it recognizes "the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin."
Halzen is a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was born in 1944 in Tienen, Belgium.
Where the prize fits in this year's Nobel season
The physics award is the second of six Nobel Prizes being announced this year. The first, the prize in Physiology or Medicine, was announced on Monday. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel received it for discovering a neuroscience tool that may one day lead to a treatment for blindness.
The remaining announcements follow this schedule:
- Chemistry: Wednesday, announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm
- Literature: Thursday, announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm
- Peace: Friday, announced by the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo
- Economic Sciences: Next Monday, announced by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm
The Nobel Prize organization streams all of the announcements live.
Last year's physics winners
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics was shared by John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis. They were honored for work that made the behaviors of the subatomic world observable in a system large enough to see with the naked eye.
Recent winners in the other categories
For context, the previous year's winners in the upcoming categories were:
- Chemistry: Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi, for developing molecular building blocks with spaces large enough for gases and other chemicals to flow through them.
- Literature: Laszlo Krasznahorkai, a Hungarian novelist known for his dystopian themes and relentless prose.
- Peace: María Corina Machado, who built a powerful social movement in Venezuela challenging the nation's authoritarian president.
- Economic Sciences: Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt, for research explaining the relationship between technological progress and sustained economic growth.
The announcement did not include further details on Halzen's research or on the prize amount.