Why in news?
Ashoke Sen has been awarded the 2026 Oskar Klein Medal, becoming the first Indian to receive the honour.
UPSC Relevance – Prelims – Awards and honours, Persons in news.
About the Oskar Klein Medal
- Awarded by – Stockholm University and the Nobel Committee for Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sweden.
- Recognises – Significant contributions to theoretical physics.
- Started – 1988, along with the Oskar Klein Memorial Lectures. The medal winner delivers the memorial lecture in Stockholm.
- Named after – Swedish physicist Oskar Klein (1894-1977).
- 2026 lecture – Delivered by Ashoke Sen in Stockholm on 22 October 2026, titled “Gravity from Strings and Strings from Gravity”.
- First Indian laureate to recieve – Ashoke Sen (2026).
- Sen conjectures (1999) – Three related ideas that gave new ways to understand the behaviour of strings in string theory.
Practice MCQ
Q1. With reference to the Oskar Klein Medal, consider the following statements:
- It is awarded by Stockholm University and the Nobel Committee for Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
- It recognises outstanding contributions to experimental particle physics.
- Ashoke Sen is the first Indian to receive it.
- It is named after a physicist who proposed adding an extra dimension of space to unify gravity and electromagnetism.
How many of the statements given above are correct?
(a) Only one
(b) Only two
(c) Only three
(d) All four
Answer: (c). Statement 2 is incorrect – the medal recognises contributions to theoretical physics.
Tell Google you want more of this.
Add Anantam IAS as a preferred sourceOne tap, and this site shows up more often in your own Top Stories, AI Overviews and AI Mode. Remove it any time.
