MATTER OF GREAT PRIDE FOR INDIAN SCIENCE!   Ashoke Sen becomes the first Indian to win the prestigious Oskar Klein Medal (2026), jointly  awarded by Stockholm University and the Nobel Committee for Physics of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his pioneering work in String theory.   deccanherald.com/science/ben…   String theory gives a unified description of all matter and the forces between them based on the postulate that the elementary constituents of matter are tiny one dimensional (string-like) objects instead of point particles. Sen’s breakthrough work has shown that multiple string theories are all different versions of a single underlying theory.   Incidentally, I met Ashok Sen for the first time, when both of us were elected  as FRS (Fellows of Royal Society) in 1998. Ashoke ( nominated by Stephen Hawking himself) was young 42 yrs and I was an oldie - 55 yrs though!   What struck me was Ashoke’s  incredible simplicity. His wife Sumathi Rao has reportedly said that Ashoke bought his first suit and needed some assistance to wear his first tie for that prestigious 1998 FRS ceremony in London, when one signs in the same book that Sir Isaac Newton has signed.   A film made on the life and work of Ashoke Sen, when we at the H K Firodia Award in Science & Technology honoured him in 2005 in Pune, will inspire all our budding scientists - showing how science & simplicity goes together. youtu.be/CoVc5cM5XlU?si=vQNQ… We all feel so so proud Ashoke! @PMOIndia @NITIAayog @PrinSciAdvOff @IndiaDST @CSIR_IND @ictstifr @PuneIntCentre @kvijayraghavan