Indian-origin scientist Professor Shrinivas "Shri" Kulkarni, a distinguished astronomer and professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has been awarded the prestigious Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) for 2026. This esteemed accolade, considered the highest honor bestowed by the UK-based scientific organization, recognizes Kulkarni's "sustained, innovative and ground-breaking contributions to multi-wavelength transient astrophysics". Born in Maharashtra, India, Kulkarni completed his master's degree at IIT Delhi in 1978 before pursuing his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley in 1983. His illustrious career spans over four decades, marked by pivotal discoveries that have revolutionized time-domain astronomy, the study of how celestial objects change over time. Among his significant achievements are the co-discovery of the first millisecond pulsar in 1982 while still a graduate student, the identification of the first brown dwarf in 1995, and demonstrating that gamma-ray bursts originate far beyond the Milky Way in 1997. More recently, he was part of the team that identified the first fast radio burst within the Milky Way in 2020. The Royal Astronomical Society's citation highlights his leadership in developing projects like the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) and its successor, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), which have been instrumental in monitoring the sky for transient cosmic events and have "revolutionised time domain astrophysics at optical wavelengths". Kulkarni's achievements have also been recognized by other major awards, including the Shaw Prize, the Alan T. Waterman Award, and the Dan David Prize. He is a member of several leading scientific academies, including the Royal Society of London, the US National Academy of Sciences, and the Indian Academy of Sciences. This latest honor places him among an elite group of scientists who have profoundly reshaped our understanding of the universe.