CERN

The 2026 Nobel Prize in has been awarded to Francis Halzen for his contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, which discovered high-energy neutrinos coming from far beyond our Solar System. IceCube, which operates in Antarctica, is a CERN Recognized Experiment.

Read more: https://home.cern/cern-congratulates-nobel-prize-winner-francis-halzen/

Image shows the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica. (Credit: Ilya Bodo, IceCube/NSF)

CERN congratulates the winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in 👏

Francis Halzen was awarded the in Physics for his outstanding contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and to the discovery of high-energy neutrinos originating from astrophysical sources.

BREAKING NEWS
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics to Francis Halzen “for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.”

Francis Halzen realised that ice at the South Pole could be used to track particles known as neutrinos. His vision and scientific leadership have been fundamental for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory – a cubic kilometre of ice that is equipped with light sensors. Using IceCube, researchers can capture neutrinos from extremely energy-rich processes in the distant universe.

Neutrinos are everywhere, but they do not make themselves known. They pass all the way through the Earth and through our bodies without us noticing. Very rarely, a single neutrino will interact with an atomic nucleus, which makes it possible for someone with the right equipment to discover them.

Scientists have long known that the cosmos contains natural particle accelerators, which fire out particles with energies up to a million times more than can be achieved in laboratories on Earth. Much about these sources is mysterious: what are they, where are they, and what are the main processes inside them?

Neutrinos with extremely high energies are created in the same environments as other types of particles. However, unlike other particles, neutrinos reach us without changing direction or losing energy. This means they can provide information that is not available in any other way.

Francis Halzen first presented his vision for capturing neutrinos at the South Pole in 1988. When a neutrino collides with an atomic nucleus, it produces a flash of light that can be tracked by sensors in the clear glacial ice. The South Pole’s ice has many advantages, as it is free from various types of interference and the area is geologically stable, with no earthquakes. Halzen and his idea soon gained the support of other researchers and, just a few years later, preliminary testing was conducted on sensors in ice.

Cosmic neutrinos with extremely high energies are very rare, so an enormous volume of ice is needed to observe an adequate number of collisions. IceCube covers an entire cubic kilometre and was finished in 2011. Researchers soon discovered the first high-energy neutrinos and, a few years later, could publish their discovery of neutrinos that must originate far outside our solar system. The search for the universe’s neutrino sources could begin in earnest.

The neutrino interactions that are continuously collected by IceCube will provide researchers with novel knowledge about the violent settings in which high-energy neutrinos can be created – and could even reveal previously unknown cosmic phenomena.

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Can you guess what they are doing?
Hint: they’re making room for something new. 👀

Here we see teams dismantling the beam vacuum lines in sections of the tunnel by the ATLAS Experiment at CERN and CMS Experiment at CERN, as part of the accelerator upgrade work preparing for the .

The teams used huge pliers to cut the piping into smaller pieces, allowing several components to be safely removed, handled and sorted.

The removal of the complete vacuum system in these sections of the tunnel will make space for the new equipment, including new magnets, crab cavities, absorbers and part of the cold powering system.

: In August and September, CERN’s Beam Vacuum Operation team dismantled more than 1,300 beam vacuum components, corresponding to approximately 890 metres of beam vacuum piping.

Find out more: https://home.cern/890-metres-of-beam-vacuum-piping-dismantled-for-hilumi-lhc/

CERN entrepreneurship highlighted in global innovation report 🚀

The 2026 Global Innovation Index puts the spotlight on CERN Venture Connect (CVC), a programme that connects entrepreneurs with CERN technologies, experts, and partners to turn scientific innovation into real-world solutions.

Read more: https://home.cern/cern-entrepreneurship-highlighted-in-global-innovation-report/

Autumn at CERN, back in the day 🍂

As the leaves start deserting the trees, today we to the 90s with some autumnal scenes across CERN’s sites in Meyrin (Switzerland) and Prévessin (France).

Can you recognise any of these spots? Let us know below. 👇

First petals installed in the ATLAS Inner Tracker Strips Endcap 💫

A major milestone has been reached in the construction of the ATLAS Experiment at CERN Inner Tracker (ITk), with the installation of the first nine ‘petals’ of the ITk Strips Endcap at DESY in Germany.

The installation began on 14 September, and on 28 September the ninth petal was successfully inserted into one of the endcap structures, marking the launch of the full-scale integration phase.

Petal by petal, the endcaps are beginning to bloom – bringing the ITk closer to taking its place at the heart of ATLAS to explore the physics of .

Read more: https://home.cern/science/long-shutdown-3/

The people behind the upgrade 👫

This features the 16th collaboration meeting, which took place earlier this month.

The is a major upgrade to dramatically improve the performance of the LHC, CERN’s largest accelerator. Over 1.2 kilometres of the LHC are being dismantled and replaced by new systems to increase the luminosity (the number of particle collisions).

A total of 170 people from CERN and the project's worldwide collaborating institutes came together at Royal Holloway, University of London, for the collaboration meeting to review progress and discuss upcoming milestones as the project moves into large-scale deployment.

Find out more about what’s going on now : https://home.cern/science/long-shutdown-3/