Maharashtra-born Astronomer Shrinivas Kulkarni honoured with Royal Astronomical Society gold medal
US-based astronomer Professor Shrinivas R. Kulkarni has been awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in London, the organisation’s highest academic honour, for his sustained, innovative and ground-breaking contributions to multi-wavelength transient astrophysics . The award was announced at the Society’s A&G Highlights Meeting on 9 January 2026 , and the formal ceremony is scheduled for 8 May 2026 at the RAS Annual General Meeting in London.
Born in Maharashtra, Kulkarni completed his Master’s at IIT Delhi in 1978 before moving to the United States for doctoral studies at UC Berkeley , which he completed in 1983. He joined Caltech in 1985 , where he has been based for over 40 years, rising to become the George Ellery Hale Professor of Astronomy and Planetary Science . Over his long career, he has made landmark discoveries including the first millisecond pulsar , brown dwarfs , and remote bursts of gamma rays , as well as capturing fast radio bursts linked to magnetars.
The RAS cited Kulkarni for his leadership in time-domain astronomy , a field that focuses on observing how celestial objects and events change over time, from supernova explosions and flickering stars to bursts of radiation. His pioneering work with the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) and its successor, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) has revolutionised the study of transient phenomena, enabling astronomers to capture thousands of cosmic events across the Northern sky every few nights.
Reflecting on his career, Kulkarni described the discovery of the first millisecond pulsar as “the most fun achievement in my life” and recalled sleepless nights as a graduate student following the discovery. Known for his passion for building instruments, he has created 10 major astronomical instruments over his career, often emphasizing the motto: “ Build a big enough gizmo and things will happen. ” He is currently involved in NASA’s Ultraviolet Explorer (UVEX) mission , set to launch in 2030, and is the principal investigator of Z-Shooter , a powerful spectrometer for the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawai’i, expected to see first light in 2029.
Kulkarni’s major milestones include completing his Master’s in 1978, discovering the first millisecond pulsar in 1982, earning his PhD from UC Berkeley in 1983, co-discovering the first brown dwarf in 1995, demonstrating in 1997 that gamma-ray bursts originate outside our galaxy, and leading PTF and ZTF surveys from 2009 onwards. In 2024, he delivered Caltech’s Watson Lecture on discoveries from ZTF, before being awarded the RAS Gold Medal in 2026.
Caltech officials hailed the award as recognition of his decades of innovation in astronomy, noting that his work has captured thousands of real-time cosmic events and reshaped understanding of the dynamic universe . Kulkarni himself expressed surprise at receiving the honour, given the prestigious list of past winners including Stephen Hawking, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Albert Einstein, and Edwin Hubble , and thanked his collaborators and engineering teams. The RAS emphasised that his contributions have revolutionised the observation of the night sky and set new standards for multi-wavelength transient astrophysics.
Alongside him, this year’s RAS Gold Medal in Geophysics was awarded to Professor Andrew Jackson of ETH Zurich for his pioneering work in geomagnetism .