Indian physicist Ashoke Sen has become the first Indian to receive the 2026 Oskar Klein Medal for his pioneering contributions to string theory, black-hole physics and quantum gravity. The ICTS-TIFR professor delivered the memorial lecture, ‘Gravity from strings and strings from gravity’, in Stockholm on October 22. Sen has also received the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and the 2012 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.