Story perspectives

Ashoke Sen Wins 2026 Oskar Klein Medal for String Theory

By Drooid · Oct 25, 2026, 4:02 AM UTC · How we work

Summary

Story summary

Ashoke Sen receives the 2026 Oskar Klein Medal, becoming the first Indian honoree.
He delivered the memorial lecture in Stockholm on October 22, 2026.
The lecture titled “Gravity from Strings and Strings from Gravity” examined string theory’s link to quantum gravity.
Sen is known for pioneering S-duality, black-hole entropy counting, and string field theory.

History

Historical Context

Michael Green and John Schwarz’s 1984 anomaly-cancellation proof launched the first superstring revolution, establishing ten-dimensional strings as a unified framework. In 1994-95 Edward Witten proposed an 11-dimensional M-theory that linked the five known superstring models through S-duality, a breakthrough later expanded by Polchinski’s D-branes. Contemporary honors for Ashoke Sen’s S-duality research highlight the lasting influence of these revolutions.

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Story summary

Ashoke Sen receives the 2026 Oskar Klein Medal, becoming the first Indian honoree.
He delivered the memorial lecture in Stockholm on October 22, 2026.
The lecture titled “Gravity from Strings and Strings from Gravity” examined string theory’s link to quantum gravity.
Sen is known for pioneering S-duality, black-hole entropy counting, and string field theory.

1 / 2