Here & Now

UW-Madison Professor Francis Halzen's Nobel Prize Reaction

Frederica Freyberg:
In science news this week, UW-Madison physics professor Francis Halzen received the Nobel Prize in Physics from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Halzen is the principal investigator of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, the first of its kind detector of special energy events from the far universe using ice deep within the South Pole. He spoke about the role of the university and Wisconsin and the future of this research.

Francis Halzen:
Wisconsin is a place where unconventional – I would say dangerous – ideas can thrive. We couldn’t have done this project if, for instance, the university hadn’t made the investments in maintaining a facility like the Physical Sciences Laboratory in Stoughton, because most universities have abandoned such institutions to do research at national laboratories. It’s incredible that we had this facility in place which could deliver the support that made this project possible. This is a new way of looking at the universe. It will take bigger telescopes, many more telescopes to become real astronomy and what this will bring is impossible to predict. But it has always been great in the past, and there’s no reason not to think that it will be great again. In fact, you know, we get the first glimpses now and of what’s out there in the sky. And this will be an exciting future. So it’s happening now but what it will bring on the long term, that is impossible to predict.