Professor Ashoke Sen: An Indian Physicist on the Global Stage | Sowmen Mitter

🟥 Indian theoretical physicist Professor Ashoke Sen has been named the recipient of the prestigious 2026 Oskar Klein Medal, becoming the first Indian to earn this distinguished recognition.

Instituted in honour of the eminent Swedish theoretical physicist Oskar Klein, the medal has been awarded annually since 1988 by Stockholm University in association with the Nobel Committee for Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Its illustrious list of previous recipients includes some of the most influential figures in modern physics, among them Stephen Hawking, Peter Higgs, Chen-Ning Yang, Steven Weinberg and Hans Bethe.

As part of this honour, Professor Sen delivered the Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture on October 22 at the AlbaNova Centre of Stockholm University. His lecture, titled “Gravity from Strings and Strings from Gravity,” explored ideas at the frontier of contemporary theoretical physics.

The award acknowledges Sen’s groundbreaking work in string theory, an approach that seeks to illuminate the fundamental structure of the universe. His pioneering contributions to our understanding of black hole entropy and string field theory have also had a profound influence on the development of modern theoretical physics.

A recipient of both the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan, Professor Sen has brought distinction to Indian scholarship through his remarkable achievements in a field that seeks answers to some of the deepest questions about the cosmos. His academic journey began in Kolkata, where he studied at Presidency College and the University of Calcutta.

He currently serves as the Infosys-Madhava Chair Professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bengaluru.

Professor Ashoke Sen’s achievement is not merely a personal milestone; it is also a moment of immense pride for Indian science, reflecting the global significance of the intellectual contributions made by Indian scholars to our understanding of the universe.

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