# Annapurni Subramaniam first Indian woman to win COSPAR Vikram Sarabhai Medal 2026-08-20T05:16:19+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Professor Annapurni Subramaniam, Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) in Bengaluru, has become the first Indian woman to win the COSPAR Vikram Sarabhai Medal, awarded in 2026. She is only the fourth Indian overall to receive the honour, after former ISRO chairman U.R. Rao (1996), space physicist Gurbax Singh Lakhina (2014), and PRL director Anil Bhardwaj (2024). The medal is jointly given by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and ISRO once every two years, recognising outstanding space research in developing countries. Subramaniam has authored about 175 research papers and guided 15 PhD students over three decades. She was calibration scientist for AstroSat's Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT), leading its in-orbit performance verification. She also heads the proposed INSIST next-generation ultraviolet telescope project and contributed to India's role in the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) international collaboration. In 2024, the government awarded her the Rashtriya Vigyan Puraskar, Vigyan Shri. The medal will be conferred at the 46th COSPAR Scientific Assembly in Florence, Italy, in August 2026. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The award is named after Vikram Sarabhai, ISRO's founder, and is jointly given by the international COSPAR body and ISRO once every two years. Subramaniam's career demonstrates the coming of age of India's homegrown astronomy program: she was the calibration lead for UVIT, the Indian ultraviolet telescope on AstroSat. ISRO must now decide whether to fund the next step: INSIST, a more advanced ultraviolet telescope she is leading. The next COSPAR assembly, where she will be celebrated, is set for August 2026 in Florence. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com Leads with the achievement and names four previous Indian winners, straight factual reporting with no criticism or sensationalism. This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Annapurni Subramaniam, COSPAR, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, ISRO, Vikram Sarabhai Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/annapurni-subramaniam-first-indian-woman-to-win-cospar-vikram-sarabhai-medal/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/annapurni-subramaniam-first-indian-woman-to-win-cospar-vikram-sarabhai-medal/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/