Add one grain of sand and nothing happens. Add another and the pile collapses. He worked out why.

Professor Deepak Dhar, INSA Distinguished Professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences in Bengaluru, was named on 8 August 2026 as one of four winners of the ICTP Dirac Medal, one of theoretical physics’ highest honours, for work in statistical mechanics that now reaches from earthquakes to artificial intelligence.