Vikram Sarabhai Medal Awarded to Astrophysicist Annapurni Subramaniam

Astrophysicist Annapurni Subramaniam was awarded the COSPAR Vikram Sarabhai Medal 2026 on 3 August 2026, during the 46th COSPAR Scientific Assembly held in Florence, Italy. She is currently the Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, with additional charge, Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS)

Annapurni Subramaniam Is the First Indian Woman Scientist to Receive COSPAR Vikram Sarabhai Medal 2026

She is the fourth Indian to receive this international medal. Earlier Indian recipients include former ISRO Chairman U.R. Rao (1996), space plasma physicist Gurbax Singh Lakhina (2014), and ISRO's Physical Research Laboratory director Anil Bharadwaj (2024). With this honour, she also becomes only the third woman scientist in the world to receive the medal.

About the COSPAR Vikram Sarabhai Medal

The Vikram Sarabhai Medal is a premier international award recognising outstanding scientific achievements and research leadership in space research, with a focus on advancing space science capabilities in or for developing nations.

1. Awarding Organisations: Conferred jointly by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), an international scientific body affiliated with the International Science Council (ISC), and the United Nations COPUOS and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
2. Biennial Frequency: Presented every two years during the COSPAR Scientific Assembly.

About Astrophysicist Professor Annapurni Subramaniam

1. She specialises in stellar physics, studying star clusters and nearby galaxies, and has worked extensively on space and ground-based astronomical instruments. 
2. She served as the calibration scientist for the Ultra-violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) onboard AstroSat, India's first space-based telescope launched in 2015, and is involved with the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT), an international project in which India is a participating member. 
3. She is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and a member of the International Astronomical Union.
4. In 2024, she received the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar – Vigyan Shri in the Space Science and Technology category.