Belgian-American physicist Prof Francis Halzen wins Nobel Prize in Physics for detecting cosmic neutrinos

Tienen, Oct. 6 -- Belgian-American physicist Prof Francis Halzen has won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering work on IceCube, an observatory at the South Pole that detects elusive particles travelling across the universe.

Halzen, now a US citizen and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, led the development of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, which uses thousands of light sensors embedded deep in a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice to detect high-energy neutrinos.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Halzen's "vision and scientific leadership have been fundamental" to the observatory. He first presented his idea for detecting neutrinos at the South Pole in 1988.

Speaking at a news conference, Halzen said he ...