🔆 THE DIRAC MEDAL 2026
📍 Why in News?
✅ Indian theoretical physicist Prof. Deepak Dhar received the 2026 ICTP Dirac Medal.
✅ He shared the award with Bernard Derrida, Marc Mézard and Haim Sompolinsky.
✅ The award recognises pioneering contributions to statistical mechanics and complex physical systems.
📍 About the Dirac Medal
✅ Established → 1985.
✅ Awarded by → International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy.
✅ Named after → Paul A. M. Dirac, British theoretical physicist.
✅ Recognises outstanding contributions to theoretical physics.
✅ Nobel, Fields or Wolf Prize laureates are not eligible at the time of award.
📍 Prof. Deepak Dhar — Contribution
✅ Developed the mathematical foundation of the Abelian Sandpile Model.
✅ Demonstrated self-organised criticality arising from simple local interactions.
✅ Established the Abelian property → the final state remains predictable irrespective of the sequence of avalanches.
✅ His work helps model complex non-equilibrium systems.
📍 Indian Milestone
✅ Second Indian to receive the ICTP Dirac Medal.
✅ First → Ashoke Sen (2012).
✅ Dhar received the Padma Bhushan (2023) and Boltzmann Medal (2022).
🔆 Prelims Facts
✅ Dirac Medal → ICTP
✅ Established → 1985
✅ Headquarters → Trieste, Italy
✅ ICTP founded → 1964
✅ Abelian Sandpile Model → Deepak Dhar
✅ First Indian Dirac Medallist → Ashoke Sen
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August 13, 2026 543
