Deepak Dhar awarded 2026 Dirac Medal for physics research

Indian theoretical physicist Deepak Dhar has been awarded the 2026 Dirac Medal by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). The award recognizes his pioneering contributions to statistical mechanics and his work on how simple interactions lead to complex, unpredictable behaviors in large systems.

Dhar is particularly noted for his work on the sandpile model and the development of Dhar’s burning algorithm. His research into self-organized criticality helps model diverse phenomena, including earthquakes, traffic jams, and fluctuations in financial markets.

A former Richard Feynman fellow at the California Institute of Technology, Dhar chose to return to India following his PhD, spending much of his career at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai before joining the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune. He is one of four physicists selected for the 2026 medal, joining Bernard Derrida, Marc Mézard, and Haim Sompolinsky.