IPA Rahul Basu Memorial Award

for the Best Thesis in any area of High Energy Physics

Congratulations to winners of the IPA Rahul Basu Memorial award for the best theses in High Energy Physics in the period 2022-2024.

Year	Awardees	Runners up
2024	Dr. Ahmadullah Zahed, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru for the thesis "New tools to constrain EFTs and CFTs." Dr. Ashish Pandav, National Institute Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar and Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai for the thesis "Probing the QCD Phase Diagram via Net-proton Number Fluctuation at RHIC"	Dr. Sunil Jaiswal, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for the thesis "Exploring New Regimes of Relativistic Hydrodynamics" Dr. Fahim Varsi, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur fo thesis "Measurement of the Energy spectrum and composition of cosmic rays by the GRAPES-3 experiment."

Year

Awardees

Runners up

2024

Dr. Ahmadullah Zahed, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru for the thesis "New tools to constrain EFTs and CFTs."

Dr. Ashish Pandav, National Institute Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar and Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai for the thesis
"Probing the QCD Phase Diagram via Net-proton Number Fluctuation at RHIC"

Dr. Sunil Jaiswal, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for the thesis "Exploring New Regimes of Relativistic Hydrodynamics"

Dr. Fahim Varsi, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur fo thesis
"Measurement of the Energy spectrum and composition of cosmic rays by the GRAPES-3 experiment."

About the award

The Rahul Basu Memorial Award celebrates the life and work of late Prof.Rahul Basu, who was one of India’s leading High Energy physicists and a warm and enthusiastic member of the HEP community whose presence is greatly missed. The awards, coordinated through the Indian Physics Association, are given to the two most outstanding Ph.D. theses from India, across all areas of High Energy Physics (theoretical and experimental, including problems of gravitation and cosmology) during a two-year period starting from September 1, of each even year. To be eligible for the 2026 award, the thesis should have been accepted with at least a Provisional Degree Certificate from a recognised university, dated between September 1, 2024 and August 31, 2026.

The winners will be selected by an expert committee. Each awardee will receive a citation and a cash prize (currently Rs 25,000). The awards will be presented at the DAE symposium in High Energy Physics. The 2026 award (the eighth in the series) will be given at the DAE symposium to be held at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad and University of Hyderabad from December 16-20, 2026.

Nomination procedure

Nominations are invited from faculty members working in High Energy Physics at a university or research institute. Please write to [email protected], providing the name and email address of the nominee and a brief (one paragraph) description of the nominee’s work. The name of the nominee should also appear in the `subject’ of the email.

Thereafter the award committee will contact the nominee to submit his/her thesis, along with a detailed CV including list of publications and a copy of the Provisional Degree Certificate. The nominee will be asked to request two referees (one of whom may be the nominator) to write directly to the same email address in support of the nomination. In all communications, the nominee’s name should appear in the `subject’. The nominee will also provide the names and email addresses of the reviewers of the thesis. The committee, if needed, will consult experts in the research area of the candidate, including the reviewers of the thesis. Winners will be selected by an expert committee whose decision will be final.

Deadline

The last date to receive nominations will be September 20, 2026. Nominees may be contacted by the expert committee at any stage to provide additional details as required.

Award ceremony

The winners will be invited to receive the award and to deliver a seminar on their thesis work in a session during the DAE Symposium in HEP, to be held at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad and University of Hyderabad during December 16—20,2026.

Earlier Winners:

The earlier winners of this award are

Year	Awardees	Honouroble Mention
2012	Dr. Lokesh Kumar (Punjab University) for the thesis "Identified particle production, fluctuations and correlations studies in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energies". Dr. Diptimoy Ghosh (TIFR ) for the thesis “Looking for physics beyond the Standard Model through flavour transitions.”	Dr. Debasish Banerjee (TIFR), for the thesis "Nonperturbative studies of strongly interacting matter at finite temperature and density". Dr. Ketan Patel (PRL/Mohanlal Sukhadia University) for the thesis "Beyond the Standard Model Physics: Grand Unification and otherwise".
2014	Dr. Pratishruti Saha (Univ. of Delhi) for the thesis Addressing some issues beyond the standard model at Hadron Colliders Dr. Nikhil Karthick (TIFR Mumbai) for the thesis Studies on gauge link smearing and their applications to lattice QCD at finite temperature.	Dr. Ritu Aggarwal (Panjab University) for the thesis Measurement of High x neutral current ep cross sections and extraction of xF3 structure function using Zeus detector at Hera Dr. Amaresh Jaiswal (TIFR, Mumbai) for the thesis Formulation of relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics and its applications in heavy-ion collisions
2016	Dr. Bhavna Gomber, Calcutta University. Thesis Title: Search of Large Extra Dimensions in g+ET final state in pp collisions with the CMS detector at the LHC. Dr. Roji Pius, Harishchandra Research Institute, Allahabad. Thesis Title: Perturbative aspects of String Theory and Gauge/Strong Duality	Dr. Md. Rihan Haque, NISER, Bhubaneshwar. Thesis Title: Nucleii Production and Azimuthal Anisotropy of charged particles in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC Dr. Kirtiman Mohan, CHEP, IISc, Bangalore Thesis Title: The Higgs Boson as a probe of physics beyond the standard model in the era of the LHC.
2018	Dr. Apratim Kaviraj, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Thesis Title: Conformal Bootstrap: Old and New. Dr. Ipsita Saha, University of Calcutta, Kolkata Thesis Title: The study of the physics beyond the SM at the LHC in the light of dark matter searches.	Dr. Rusa Mandal, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai and HBNI. Thesis Title: Rare B Decays as a probe to beyond standard model physics. Dr. Taushif Ahmed, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai and HBNI. Thesis Title: QCD Radiative Corrections to Higgs Physics.
2020	Dr. P.K. Resmi (IIT Madras) for the thesis "Measurement of the CKM angle φ3 from B ± --> D(Ks0π+π-π0)K ± decays and future prospects". Dr. Manibrata Sen (TIFR ) for the thesis “New aspects of supernova neutrino flavour conversions: In the standard model and beyond.”	Dr. Chandrodoy Chattopadhyay (TIFR), for the thesis "Entropy production and thermal fluctuations in higher- order dissipative hydrodynamics". Dr. Rafiqul Rahaman (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata) for the thesis "Study of anomalous gauge boson self-couplings and the role of spin-1 polarizations". Dr. Suman Chatterjee (TIFR) for the thesis "Jets as probes for precision measurements and candles for physics beyond standard model".
2022	Dr. Anupam Ray, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for the thesis "Unravelling the Mystery of Dark Matter with Stars & Black Holes." Dr. Shubham Pandey, Indian Institute of Science Education and research Pune for the thesis "Performance of High Granularity Calorimeter prototypes for the CMS HL-LHC upgrade in beam test experiments at CERN"	Dr. Biswajit Sahoo, Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Prayagraj for the thesis "Thesis title: Classical and Quantum Subleading Soft Theorem in Four Spacetime Dimensions" Dr. Samir Banik, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar fo thesis "Search for Lightly Ionizing Particles in SuperCDMS and simulation of neutron backgrounds"

Year

Awardees

Honouroble Mention

2012

Dr. Lokesh Kumar (Punjab University) for the thesis
"Identified particle production, fluctuations and correlations studies in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energies".

Dr. Diptimoy Ghosh (TIFR ) for the thesis “Looking for physics beyond the Standard Model through flavour transitions.”

Dr. Debasish Banerjee (TIFR), for the thesis
"Nonperturbative studies of strongly interacting matter at finite temperature and density".

Dr. Ketan Patel (PRL/Mohanlal Sukhadia University) for the thesis
"Beyond the Standard Model Physics: Grand Unification and otherwise".

2014

Dr. Pratishruti Saha (Univ. of Delhi) for the thesis
Addressing some issues beyond the standard model at Hadron Colliders

Dr. Nikhil Karthick (TIFR Mumbai) for the thesis
Studies on gauge link smearing and their applications to lattice QCD at finite temperature.

Dr. Ritu Aggarwal (Panjab University) for the thesis
Measurement of High x neutral current ep cross sections and extraction of xF3 structure function using Zeus detector at Hera

Dr. Amaresh Jaiswal (TIFR, Mumbai) for the thesis
Formulation of relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics and its applications in heavy-ion collisions

2016

Dr. Bhavna Gomber, Calcutta University.
Thesis Title: Search of Large Extra Dimensions in g+ET final state in pp collisions with the CMS detector at the LHC.

Dr. Roji Pius, Harishchandra Research Institute, Allahabad.
Thesis Title: Perturbative aspects of String Theory and Gauge/Strong Duality

Dr. Md. Rihan Haque, NISER, Bhubaneshwar.
Thesis Title: Nucleii Production and Azimuthal Anisotropy of charged particles in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC

Dr. Kirtiman Mohan, CHEP, IISc, Bangalore
Thesis Title: The Higgs Boson as a probe of physics beyond the standard model in the era of the LHC.

2018

Dr. Apratim Kaviraj, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Thesis Title: Conformal Bootstrap: Old and New.

Dr. Ipsita Saha, University of Calcutta, Kolkata
Thesis Title: The study of the physics beyond the SM at the LHC in the
light of dark matter searches.

Dr. Rusa Mandal, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai and HBNI.
Thesis Title: Rare B Decays as a probe to beyond standard model physics.

Dr. Taushif Ahmed, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai and HBNI.
Thesis Title: QCD Radiative Corrections to Higgs Physics.

2020

Dr. P.K. Resmi (IIT Madras) for the thesis
"Measurement of the CKM angle φ3 from B ± --> D(Ks0π+π-π0)K ± decays and future prospects".

Dr. Manibrata Sen (TIFR ) for the thesis “New aspects of supernova neutrino flavour conversions: In the standard model and beyond.”

Dr. Chandrodoy Chattopadhyay (TIFR), for the thesis
"Entropy production and thermal fluctuations in higher- order dissipative hydrodynamics".

Dr. Rafiqul Rahaman (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata) for the thesis
"Study of anomalous gauge boson self-couplings and the role of spin-1 polarizations".

Dr. Suman Chatterjee (TIFR) for the thesis
"Jets as probes for precision measurements and candles for physics beyond standard model".

2022

Dr. Anupam Ray, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai for the thesis
"Unravelling the Mystery of Dark Matter with Stars & Black Holes."

Dr. Shubham Pandey, Indian Institute of Science Education and research Pune for the thesis
"Performance of High Granularity Calorimeter prototypes for the CMS HL-LHC upgrade in beam test experiments at CERN"

Dr. Biswajit Sahoo, Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Prayagraj for the thesis
"Thesis title: Classical and Quantum Subleading Soft Theorem in Four Spacetime Dimensions"

Dr. Samir Banik, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar fo thesis
"Search for Lightly Ionizing Particles in SuperCDMS and simulation of neutron backgrounds"

Sunanda Banerjee, Ghanashyam Date, Amol Dighe, Diptimoy Ghosh, Debashis Ghoshal, Neelima Gupte, Lokesh Kumar, James Libby, Nilmani Mathur, Bedanga Mohanty, Subhendra Mohanty, Sunil Mukhi, V. Ravindran and Seema Sharma (Expert Committee)