Annapurni Subramaniam first Indian woman to win COSPAR Vikram Sarabhai Medal

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.