IAGRG Awards

Vaidya–Raychaudhuri Endowment Lecture Awards

Recognising excellence in research and teaching of General Relativity and its applications

About this Lecture Series

Instituted as a tribute to two doyens of Indian relativity research, P. C. Vaidya and A. K. Raychaudhuri , this distinguished lecture recognises exceptional contributions in both research and teaching of General Relativity and its applications to astrophysics and cosmology. The awardee is invited to deliver the Vaidya–Raychaudhuri Lecture, traditionally designed to be accessible to the wider gravitation community.

The first lecture was delivered at the 15th IAGRG Meeting in 1989, and it has remained an integral part of IAGRG activities ever since. Since the 26th IAGRG Meeting in 2011, the lecture has been held annually: during IAGRG meetings in alternate years, and between meetings at venues decided by the General Body Meeting.

Lecture Archive

2021 — Present
#26

Dipankar Bhattacharya

Year: 2025
Venue: Azim Premji University, Bengaluru

VR Endowment Award Lecture

#25

Kandaswamy Subramanian

Year: 2024
Venue: 33rd IAGRG meeting, BITS Pilani

VR Endowment Award Lecture

#24

Varun Sahni

Year: October 26, 2023
Venue: Ashoka University

Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the Cosmic Web

#23

Archana Pai

Year: December 19, 2022
Venue: 32nd IAGRG meeting, IISER Kolkata

Diversifying the net to fish the short duration massive black hole mergers

#22

Ashoke Sen

Year: October 22, 2021
Venue: Department of Physical Sciences, IISER Mohali

Classical gravitational radiation from soft theorem

2011 — 2020
#21

Abhas Mitra (on behalf of Kamalendu Dev Krori)

Year: December 20, 2020
Venue: Discipline of Physics, IIT Gandhinagar

The Life and Science of Kamalendu Dev Krori, the Unsung Indian Educationist and Relativist

#20

N. D. Hari Dass

Year: January 3, 2019
Venue: Department of Physics, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Low energy theorems for electromagnetic and gravitational radiation

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#19

Ajit K. Kembhavi

Year: November 22, 2018
Venue: Department of Physics, Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar

To be made available

#18

Narayan Banerjee

Year: May 20, 2017
Venue: Department of Physics, IIT Guwahati

Towards Singularities ...

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#17

A. R. Prasanna

Year: September 22, 2016
Venue: Physics Department, Lucknow University

Gravitational Waves - A New Window to Cosmos

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#16

Bala Iyer

Year: March 19, 2015
Venue: Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru

Chipping in to detect and locate the elusive gravitational wave sources: Looking back and looking forward

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#15

M. Sami

Year: January 7, 2014
Venue: Shree Shivaji Science College, Nagpur

Why is Universe so dark?

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#14

Pankaj S. Joshi

Year: March 8, 2013
Venue: Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University, Srinagar

The Rainbows of Gravity

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#13

Sanjeev Dhurandhar

Year: November 14, 2011
Venue: St. Xavier's College, Kolkata

Astronomy of the 21st century: Gravitational Wave Astronomy

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#12

Asit Banerjee

Year: January 20, 2011
Venue: Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Allahabad

Absence of Horizon in the Gravitational Collapse with Radiation

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2001 — 2010
#11

T. Padmanabhan

Year: January 28, 2009
Venue: Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata

Gravity: the Inside Story

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#10

Sriranjan Banerji

Year: February 8, 2007
Venue: Centre for Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Pasting Together of Space-Time Slices

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#9

S. Mukherjee

Year: December 7, 2004
Venue: University of Rajasthan, Jaipur

Cold Compact Stars: A Laboratory for New Physics

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#8

Rajaram Nityananda

Year: December 12, 2002
Venue: IUCAA, Pune

Gravity and Light

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#7

N. K. Dadhich

Year: January 30, 2001
Venue: Central India Research Institute, Nagpur

Subtle is the Gravity

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1989 — 2000
#6

S. M. Chitre

Year: January 20, 1999
Venue: D.D.U. Gorakhpur University

The Illusive Universe

#5

R. Cowsik

Year: December 21, 1997
Venue: IUCAA, Pune

Accretion Powered Sources in Astrophysics

#4

C. V. Vishveshwara

Year: February 17, 1996
Venue: IMSc, Chennai

On the Black Hole Trail...: A Personal Journey

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#3

N. Panchapakesan

Year: February 18, 1994
Venue: IUCAA, Pune

Does a Hole Squeal?

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#2

J. V. Narlikar

Year: December 11, 1991
Venue: Vallabha Vidyanagar

Gravity as a Physical Interaction

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#1

N. Mukunda

Year: November 7, 1989
Venue: Darjeeling

Many Views of the Summit

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