The 2026 Physics Nobel has gone to Belgian-American physicist Francis Halzen, honoured for his role in building the IceCube neutrino observatory and for the detection of high-energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources. IceCube sits at the South Pole in Antarctica, using 5,160 optical sensors spread through roughly one cubic kilometre of ice. Halzen proposed South Pole neutrino hunting in 1988, and the detector was finished in 2010. Cosmic neutrinos of high energy were first reported in 2013; in 2018 one was linked to a far-off blazar. India's own neutrino work started at the Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka, and the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) was planned for Theni district, Tamil Nadu.