Francis Halzen

A Belgian physicist, Francis Halzen completed his entire higher education at the University of Leuven, earning his degree in 1966, his PhD in 1969, and his habilitation to teach at university level in 1972. Between 1969 and 1971 he strengthened his international profile working as a Scientific Associate at CERN in Geneva. The decisive turning point in his career came in 1972 with his move to the United States, to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an institution where he spent the following decades, eventually becoming Hilldale and Gregory Breit Distinguished Professor. Towards the end of the 1980s, Halzen recognised the potential of using the ice at the South Pole to detect neutrinos, taking the lead of the AMANDA project, which in 2005 officially became the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. As founder and scientific leader of this vast detector, Halzen has received top international honours, including the Balzan Prize, the Pontecorvo Prize, and the prestigious APS Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research, awarded by the American Physical Society.