"Francis Halzen has led an international team of researchers and engineers who have provided us with a fantastic instrument. His tenacity and scientific vision has paved the way for a new kind of astronomy," Mark Pearce, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said in a news release on Tuesday.
Born in Belgium, the 82-year-old scientist is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States.
Efforts by The Associated Press to reach him were not immediately successful.
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a research facility at the South Pole in Antarctica, according to its website, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison is its lead institution.
Halzen's research into capturing neutrinos at the South Pole dates to the 1980s.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the award in Stockholm.
In 2026, three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics for research on the strange behaviour of subatomic particles called quantum tunnelling that enabled the ultra-sensitive measurements achieved by MRI machines and laid the groundwork for better mobile phones and faster computers.
The announcements of 2026's prizes began on Monday with the Nobel Prize in medicine being awarded to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works.
This week's awards continue on Wednesday with the chemistry prize and literature on Thursday.
After Friday's peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on Monday.
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