BENGALURU, October 24 (Aalimi Nation) – Theoretical physicist Ashoke Sen has become the first Indian to receive the Oskar Klein Medal, the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) announced on October 22. The Ashoke Sen Oskar Klein Medal for 2026 recognises decades of work on string theory.
The medal is awarded jointly by Stockholm University and the Nobel Committee for Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It was established in 1988 to honour distinguished contributions to physics. Earlier recipients include Hans Bethe, Steven Weinberg and Chen-Ning Yang, who won it in the medal's first three years.
Sen delivered the 2026 Oskar Klein Memorial Lecture, titled "Gravity from Strings and Strings from Gravity", at Stockholm University's AlbaNova Centre on October 22.
ICTS said the honour recognises Sen's pioneering contributions to string theory, including his work on S-duality, the precise counting of black-hole entropy, and string field theory. String theory is a framework that seeks to describe gravity and the other fundamental forces within a single mathematical structure.
Sen is the ICTS-Infosys Madhava Chair Professor at ICTS. ICTS Director Rajesh Gopakumar congratulated him on behalf of the institute. "On behalf of all of us, very warm congratulations to Ashoke," he said, adding that having Sen at the centre had been wonderful and had set the tone for excellence there.
The medal adds to a series of honours listed by the institute. Sen received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2012 for work establishing the unifying structure of string theory, and the Dirac Medal in 2014. He is also a recipient of the Infosys Prize in Mathematical Sciences (2009), the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1994) and the ICTP Prize (1989).
The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 2001 and the Padma Bhushan in 2013. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1998.
Until this year, the Oskar Klein Medal had not gone to an Indian scientist, according to ICTS. The recognition by a body linked to the Nobel Committee for Physics underlines the standing of theoretical physics research done at Indian institutions.
The institute has not announced any ceremony in India to mark the award. The medal's formal presentation details were not part of the announcement, and ICTS has not said whether further events are planned.
