This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics carries a quiet Indian connection. The prize went to Francis Halzen for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, and Halzen had earlier received the 2019 Yodh Prize.

The Yodh Prize was endowed in 1998 by Indian-born physicist Gaurang Yodh and his wife Kanwal to the University of California, Irvine Foundation. It honours scientists whose work has shaped the understanding of cosmic rays.

Yodh (1928-2019) was a pioneering cosmic-ray physicist who, with Yash Pal and James Trefil, showed in 1972 that the proton-proton cross-section rises with energy. His work on transition radiation detectors became a standard reference.

He later contributed to the MILAGRO and HAWC observatories and the IceCube collaboration itself. He was also a noted sitar player who recorded one of the first albums of Indian music in the US in 1956.

Halzen won the 2019 Yodh Prize for leadership that cleared the path for neutrino astronomy, seven years before his Nobel. The prize is awarded every two years at the International Cosmic Ray Conference.