India, Aug. 13 -- Indian physicist Deepak Dhar has won the prestigious 2026 Dirac Medal, one of the world's leading honours in theoretical physics, for his "important contributions to statistical mechanics".

Dhar is one of four physicists to receive this year's medal, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), the Italy-based organisation which issues the award.

Dhar is a professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (ICTS-TIFR) in Bengaluru. The Dirac Medal, established in 1985, recognises major contributions to theoretical physics.

Its past recipients include several scientists who later went on to receive some of the world's highest scientific honours, incl...