Annapurni Subramaniam has been awarded the COSPAR Vikram Sarabhai Medal 2026 for her outstanding contributions to space research

Astrophysicist Annapurni Subramaniam has been awarded the COSPAR Vikram Sarabhai Medal–2026 for her outstanding contributions to space research, becoming the first Indian woman scientist to receive this honour.

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¨     The award was presented during the 46th COSPAR Scientific Assembly held in Florence, Italy.

¨     She is only the fourth Indian to receive the medal, after U.R. Rao (1996), Gurbax Singh Lakhina (2014) and Anil Bharadwaj (2024).

¨     She is also the first Indian woman scientist and only the third woman globally to receive this distinction.

¨     She served as the calibration scientist for the Ultra-violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) aboard AstroSat, India’s first space-based telescope launched in 2015, and is associated with the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT) international project.

Vikram Sarabhai Medal

¨     It is an international award jointly instituted by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in honour of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the founder of India’s space programme and ISRO.

¨     Constituted in 1990, the medal recognises outstanding contributions to space research in developing countries.

¨     It is open to candidates from any country, provided their relevant work has been carried out mainly during the five-year period ending one year before the COSPAR Scientific Assembly at which the medal is presented.

Committee on Space Research (COSPAR)

¨     It is an international scientific body established in 1958, shortly after the launch of the world’s first artificial satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957.

¨     It functions under the International Science Council (ISC) and is associated with the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS).

¨     COSPAR is one of the world’s largest forums for space scientists and organises its Scientific Assembly every two years, bringing together nearly 3,000 scientists from across the globe to promote international cooperation and advance space research.