Shrinivas R Kulkarni, a renowned US professor of Indian descent, will be awarded the prestigious Shaw Award for his contributions in the field of astronomy. Kulkarni’s groundbreaking discoveries about millisecond pulsars, gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and other variable or transient astronomical objects have earned him this prestigious annual prize.
Established in 2002, the Shaw Prize is recognized globally and is bestowed annually in three distinct fields: Astronomy, Life Science and Medicine, and Mathematical Sciences.
Srinivas R Kulkarni currently serves as the Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science across the divisions of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Formerly, he held the position of director at the Caltech Optical Observatory from 2006 to 2018.
Born in the town of Kurundwad in Maharashtra and raised in Hubbali, Karnataka, Kulkarni pursued his MS degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, in 1978, before continuing his academic journey in the United States, where he completed his PhD at the University of California.
Kulkarni’s illustrious career as a radio astronomer commenced with his groundbreaking observations of the Milky Way Galaxy’s four arms through HI absorption. Notably, he discovered the first millisecond pulsar, named PSR B1937+21, characterized by its rapid rotation.
Collaborating with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Kulkarni identified soft gamma-ray repeaters as neutron stars.
In recent years, Kulkarni’s research has led to the identification of new groups of optical transients, including superluminous supernovae, calcium novae, and luminous red novae.
Throughout his career, Kulkarni has garnered several prestigious awards and honors, including the National Science Foundation’s Alan T. Waterman Award in 1992, the Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 1991, and an honorary doctorate from Radboud University in the Netherlands in 2015.
