Infosys Prize awards 6 top researchers in Science and Humanities

The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF)’s Infosys Prize 2016 were given away in six fields at an awards ceremony, celebrating their inspiring journey and contributions to science and research.

The Prize was given across the fields of Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences.

Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society, Nobel Prize Laureate and Padma Vibhushan, felicitated the winners and awarded each laureate a purse of Rs 65 lakhs, a 22-karat gold medallion and a citation certificate. 

Trustees of the Infosys Science Foundation, S D Shibulal, President of the Board of Trustees, N R Narayana Murthy, Mohandas Pai, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Srinath Batni and K Dinesh, were present at the event, also attended by eminent scientists and leaders from different industries and academia.

Ramakrishnan commended the extraordinary work that the Infosys Science Foundation is doing to encourage scientific research in India, according to a Foundation release. ‘

”In a complex and technological world, it is increasingly important for all of us to understand the basis of science and technology, and to distinguish evidence based facts from speculation and myth,” he said.

Scientists work quietly to advance the state of our understanding in areas from pure mathematics and physics all the way to medicine and engineering, and the Infosys prize is a nice way to recognize the work of some leading scientists and stimulate public interest in science, he said.

The winners of Infosys Prize 2016 are

1) Engineering and Computer Science: V Kumaran, Professor, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore,

2) Humanities: Prof Sunil Amrith, Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies, Professor of History, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA,

3) Life Sciences: Prof Gagandeep Kang, Executive Director of Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad.

4) Mathematical Sciences: Akshay Venkatesh, Professor, Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, USA,

5) Physical Sciences Dr Anil Bhardwaj, Director, Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram

6) Social Sciences: Prof Kaivan Munshi, Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, UK.

Infosys Science Foundation is a not-for-profit trust funded by a corpus which today stands at over Rs 140 Crore contributed by the trustees and Infosys.