Press Information Bureau

India has achieved a remarkable medal haul at the 19th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) 2026, held in Hanoi, Vietnam, from September 25 to October 5, 2026. All five Indian students participating in the Olympiad won medals, with four securing Gold and one winning a Silver medal.

The Indian medal winners are:

• Pranjal Dixit, Hyderabad, Telangana – Gold
• Sumant Gupta, Delhi – Gold
• Akshat Srivastava, Gurugram, Haryana – Gold
• Arnav Sehrawat, Faridabad, Haryana – Gold
• Harshil Amitkumar Patel, Vadodara, Gujarat – Silver

In the medals tally, India was placed jointly in the third position with Vietnam (guest team), behind Iran and South Korea, which won five Gold medals each. A total of 51 Gold, 48 Silver and 60 Bronze medals were awarded at the Olympiad.

The Indian team was accompanied by two leaders, Prof. Bhaswati Mookerjea, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, and Prof. Sanved Kolekar, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru. Prof. Abdul Rahoof K. A., Sullamussalam Science College, Keralam, and Mr. Adarsh Reddy Madur, Virtu Financial, Singapore, accompanied the team as Scientific Observers. Prof. Aniket Sule from Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), TIFR, attended the event as the current President of IOAA.

The IOAA 2026 saw participation of 307 students from 64 countries, making it the biggest IOAA till date in terms of the number of participating countries and students. Since India's participation in Astronomy Olympiads began in 1999, 49 per cent of Indian students have won Gold medals, 35 per cent Silver medals and 13 per cent Bronze medals. In the last five years, all Indian students have won either Gold (64 per cent) or Silver (36 per cent) medals.

With the conclusion of IOAA 2026, all the senior-level International Olympiads in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Astronomy for the year have concluded. For the first time since India's participation in International Olympiads began in 1989, every Indian student has won either a Gold or Silver medal this year. A total of 16 Indian students have won Gold medals and eight have won Silver medals across the senior-level Olympiads.

The IOAA competition consists of three components — Theory, accounting for 50 per cent of the score, Observation, accounting for 25 per cent, and Data Analysis, accounting for 25 per cent. In addition, a team competition involving mixed-nation teams is also held.

An informal interaction with the Indian students and mentors will be held at 11:30 AM on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), TIFR, V. N. Purav Marg, Mankhurd, Mumbai – 400088.

***

Source : HBCSE-TIFR/ Edgar Coelho / Madhura Nerurkar

 

Follow us on social media :@PIBMumbai    /PIBMumbai    /pibmumbai  pibmumbai[at]gmail[dot]com  /PIBMumbai    /pibmumbai

(Release ID: 2319153) Visitor Counter : 275