Congratulations to Francis Halzen!

The 2026 Physics Nobel Prize was awarded this week, going to Francis Halzen for the work that led to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Does that image look weird, like something is missing? It should. This is the first time in over thirty years that the physics Nobel was awarded to just a single person. Most years, it goes to three people, even if they have to awkwardly jam loosely related achievements together to make it work. Some years, it goes to two. The last time one person received the whole prize was 1992. So why didn’t Halzen have to share the prize like Penrose did in 2020 and Parisi did in 2021? As the saying goes, your guess is as good as mine. I can say that I was pleasantly surprised to read the announcement and see a name I recognized. I probably couldn’t name the main figures behind most big experiments. If the prize had gone to another founding figure, I’d be out of luck. But I’d heard of Halzen. And specifically, I’d heard about him in the context of the long road it…