Atish Dabholkar is a theoretical physicist from India working in the field of string theory, black holes and holography.

Atish Dabholkar received his PhD in theoretical physics from Princeton University under the supervision of Jeffrey Harvey. He did  his Masters in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.  

Dabholkar is the recipient of the 2006 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the highest Indian science prize  awarded by the Prime Minister of India.   He was awarded the Chaire d'Excellence of the Agence Nationale de la Recherche  in France in 2007.  

He is an elected  Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) for the advancement of science in developing countries.

Dabholkar was the Head of ICTP's High Energy, Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics section prior to taking up the directorship.  He has been Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Directeur de Recherche of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at  Sorbonne Université and a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and CERN. He was a post-doctoral associate at  Rutgers University and  Harvard University, and a senior research fellow at California Institute of Technology.

From December 2023, he is also TWAS Executive Director ad interim.