TIFR Astrophysicist Dr. Sourav Chatterjee Wins Prof. Peraiah Foundation Award 2025

Dr. Sourav Chatterjee, Associate Professor at the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, has been awarded the Prof. Peraiah Foundation Award for Research in Theoretical Astrophysics (2025). The award honours his contributions to understanding how dynamical processes shape astrophysical systems, from planets to black holes.

The award ceremony took place on September 11, 2025, at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru. On the occasion, Dr. Chatterjee delivered the Prof. Peraiah Foundation Lecture titled “Dynamical Formation of Merging Binary Black Holes and the Way Forward.”

A Bright Future for Indian Astrophysics

This honour comes at a key moment for India’s scientific community. Since LIGO’s first detection in 2015, Indian scientists have made major contributions — from refining signal extraction techniques to advancing data analysis methods.

The upcoming LIGO-India project, a ₹1600 crore facility under construction in Hingoli, Maharashtra, will place India firmly in the global gravitational wave network by around 2030. This will sharpen our ability to locate gravitational wave sources across the sky.

As Dr. Chatterjee notes, Indian astrophysics is expanding beyond theory into data analysis, cosmology, tests of relativity, and even instrumentation. The community, he says, is “growing at a rapid pace.”