India, Jan. 30 -- He likes to joke that his initials are SRK, but he hobnobs with a very different set of stars.

Astronomer Shrinivas Ramchandra Kulkarni, 69, loves bunnies, is mercilessly irreverent, and switches focus areas every five years. "I like to identify emerging fields, make a splash and then exit, once the field has become popular," he says.

It's an unusual approach, but one that has undoubtedly served him well.

Kulkarni, who teaches astronomy and planetary science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), won the $1.2 million Shaw Prize in Astronomy (instituted by Hong Kong businessman Run Run Shaw and known as the Nobel of the East) in 2024, and followed that up, this January, with the highest award handed out b...