Francis Halzen
Francis Halzen | |
|---|---|
| Born | 23 March 1944 |
| Education | University of Louvain |
| Known for | IceCube Neutrino Observatory |
| Title | Hilldale and Gregory Breit Distinguished Professor |
| Awards | Academia Europaea Member (2018) Balzan Price for Astroparticle Physics (2015) European Physical Society Prize for Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology (2015) Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award (2014) Physics World Breakthrough of the Year Award (2013) American Physical Society Fellow (1995) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Particle physics, Neutrino physics |
| Institutions | University of Wisconsin-Madison |
| Website | https://icecube.wisc.edu/~halzen/ |
Francis Louis Halzen (born 23 March 1944 in Tienen, Belgium) is a Belgian-American particle physicist. He is the Hilldale and Gregory Breit Distinguished Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Director of its Institute for Elementary Particle Physics. Halzen is the Principal Investigator of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica, the world's largest neutrino detector which has been operational since 2010.
Background
Halzen was born and raised in Belgium. He graduated from the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) with a MSc Physics degree in 1966, a PhD in 1969, then his Agrégé de l'Enseignement Supérieur in 1972. Between 1969-1971 he worked as a scientific associate at CERN. Since 1972 he has been a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Principal Investigator on the AMANDA and IceCube projects.[1][2]
Halzen is been a leading scientist in the development of cosmic ray physics and astroparticle physics since the 1970s. In addition to particle physics he published many early papers on cosmic ray anomalies and quark matter, and on relations between particle physics and cosmic rays, on particles from supernovae and on muon production in atmospheric gamma-ray showers.[3] He has served on various advisory committees, including those for the SNO, Telescope Array and Auger-upgrade experiments, the Max Planck Institutes in Heidelberg and Munich, the ICRR at the University of Tokyo, the US Particle Physics Prioritization Panel and the ApPEC particle astrophysics advisory panel in Europe.[4]
With Alan Martin he is the co-author of Quarks and Leptons, a standard text.[5]
Awards
- 1994: Fellow of the American Physical Society
- 2013: Breakthrough of the Year Award by the journal Physics World for the first-time discovery of cosmic neutrinos beyond the Milky Way [6]
- 2015: Balzan Prize[3]
- 2015: European Physical Society Prize for Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology[7]
References
- ^ "Francis Halzen Full CV" (PDF). IceCube/University of Wisconsin. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
- ^ "Academy of Europe: Halzen Francis". Academia Europaea. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
- ^ a b "2015 Balzan Prize for Astroparticle Physics including neutrino and gamma-ray observation". International Balzan Prize Foundation. October 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
- ^ "Francis Halzen: Biographical and Bibliographical Information". International Balzan Prize Foundation. October 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
- ^ "Alan Martin". Fellows Directory. Royal Society. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
- ^ Hamish Johnston (December 13, 2013). "Cosmic neutrinos named Physics World 2013 Breakthrough of the Year". Physics World. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
- ^ "The 2015 EPS HEPP Prizes are announced". European Physical Society. April 14, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2018.