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The Infosys Prize is an annual award that recognizes outstanding contributions by scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists in India. By recognizing and rewarding extraordinary accomplishments, the Infosys Prize aims to elevate the prestige of pure and applied sciences research in India. The Prize hopes to fill a gap, to inspire young Indians, and to help scientists continue their good work.

The Infosys Prize will be presented annually in five categories:

• Physical Sciences - Physics and Chemistry
• Mathematical Sciences - Mathematics and Statistics
• Engineering and Computer Science – All branches of Engineering
• Life Sciences – Biology, Medicine and Agricultural Sciences
• Social Sciences and Economics – Economics, History, Sociology, Anthropology and Political Science

Background

Research in pure and applied sciences in India, despite stellar achievements in recent times, has not been given the encouragement, support and recognition it deserves. A lacuna in support exists despite India’s rich heritage in scientific enquiry that continues to date.

However, the Government of India, with an increase in the outlay on higher education in its Eleventh Five-Year Plan, breathed change into the scientific community. In the light of this move, encouragement from other quarters might further inject vitality into scientific research in India.

Infosys Science Foundation

Infosys set up the Infosys Science Foundation, a not-for-profit trust, in February 2009. Under the aegis of the Foundation, Infosys will honor outstanding contributions and achievements by Indians in various streams of scientific research, including physical sciences, mathematics, engineering sciences, life sciences and social sciences.

Awarded annually in five categories, the Infosys Prize honors research in India. Laureates in each category will be presented with Rs. 50 lakh, a medallion and a certificate.

Statutes

• The Infosys Prize, in each of the five categories , shall be awarded to a person who, in the opinion of the award jury, has made outstanding contributions – fundamental or applied – in any field of mathematical sciences, physical sciences, engineering and computer science, life sciences or social sciences. The Prize intends to recognize contributions of extraordinary depth and influence in these sciences.
• Prizes in all five categories shall follow the same calendar.
• The Prize can be given for an outstanding invention/discovery or for a cumulative body of work.
• Preference will be given to recent work (over the last 5 – 10 years), to encourage active researchers conducting contemporary research.
• Self-nominations will not be accepted.
• The nominated candidate’s work should have been conducted in India and should have had a positive impact in India, or, it should have the potential to make a positive impact in India.
• Candidates may be citizens of India or persons of Indian origin. However, it is important that they are residents of India at the time of conducting research for which they have been nominated. Candidates of non-Indian origin may also be considered provided that their work, which is nominated for the award, has been conducted in India and has had a positive impact in India.
• It is recommended that the candidate be 50 years of age or less as on October 31, 2009. However, in exceptional cases, the jury may consider candidates up to the age of 55 on a discretionary basis.
• The Prize in a given year may also be awarded to a group of individuals. The eligibility criteria of residence and age applicable to individual winners shall apply to each individual in the group.
• Prize winners will be selected by the respective jury and the decision of the jury shall be final.
• The trustees of the Infosys Science Foundation shall invite a person of repute in the relevant field to be chair of the jury for that particular category. The jury chair shall choose other jurors to complete the jury for that specific category. The tenure of the chair shall be three years and each individual juror shall serve for one year.
• If the jury does not find suitable candidates, the Prize will not be awarded in that year.
• The Prize shall consist of a cash award of Rs. 50 lakh (Indian Rupees Fifty Lakh), a citation and a medallion. If more than one person wins the award in a given year, the prize money shall be equally shared and each individual winner shall be awarded a separate citation and medal.
• The Prize will be awarded once a year.

Further details available on Infosys Science Foundation Website.

The Infosys Prize for Mathematics 2008

The Infosys Prize for Mathematics 2008 awarded by Infosys and the National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) will be integrated with the Infosys Prize in the mathematical sciences category with effect from 2009. The first recipient of the prize was Prof. Manindra Agrawal , N. Rama Rao Chair Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur.

Learn more about Prof. Agrawal's work .

Nominations

Nominations for the Infosys Prize are accepted online at the Infosys Science Foundation website [1]. Nominations for the 2009 award will open on April 1, 2009 and close on June 15, 2009.

Trustees

• N.R. Narayana Murthy – President of the Board of Trustees
• Nandan M. Nilekani
• S. Gopalakrishnan
• K. Dinesh
• Shibulal S.D.
• T.V. Mohandas Pai
• Srinath Batni
• Balakrishnan V.

Jury Chairs (2009-2011)

Physical Sciences

Prof. Shrinivas Kulkarni is John D. & Catherine T. McArthur Professor of Astronomy & Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Prof. Kulkarni's primary interests are the study of compact objects (neutron stars and gamma-ray bursts) and the search for extra-solar planets through interferometric and adaptive techniques. He serves as the Interdisciplinary Scientist for the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) and is co-PI of the Planet Search Key Project (also on SIM). He has been awarded the Alan T. Waterman Prize of the NSF, a fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, a Presidential Young Investigator award from the NSF and the Helen B. Warner award of the American Astronomical Society and the Janksy Prize of Associated Universities, Inc. Kulkarni was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1994), Fellow of the Royal Society of London (2001) and Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (2003).

Mathematical Sciences

Prof. Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan is a Professor of Mathematics and Frank J. Gould Professor of Science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University. He is a winner of the Birkhoff Prize (1994), the Margaret and Herman Sokol Award of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, New York University (1995), and the Leroy Steele Prize (1996). He also has honorary degrees from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris (2003) and from the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, India (2004).

Engineering and Computer Science

Prof. Subra Suresh is Dean of the School of Engineering and Ford Professor of Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been elected to US National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian Academy of Sciences, Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences, Academy of Sciences of the Developing World based in Trieste, Italy, and German National Academy of Sciences. He has been elected a Fellow or Honorary Member of all of the major materials professional societies in the USA and India. A recipient of the 2006 Acta Materialia Gold Medal, 2007 European Materials Medal (the first non-European selected to receive this prize given jointly by 26 European materials societies), 2008 Eringen Medal of the Society of Engineering Science, and a Senior Humboldt Research Prize from Germany, Suresh holds an honorary doctorate from Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology. In 2006, MIT’s Technology Review magazine selected Suresh as one of the top 10 researchers whose work in nanomechanics of biological systems will have “significant impact on business, medicine or culture”.

Life Sciences and Medicine

Prof. Inder Verma is Professor and American Cancer Society Professor Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. One of the world's leading authorities on the development of viruses for gene therapy vectors, Dr. Verma uses genetically engineered viruses to insert new genes into cells that can then be returned to the body, where they produce the essential protein whose absence causes disease. . Dr. Verma has also made major contributions in cancer biology . In 2009, he became the first incumbent of the Irwin Mark Jacobs Chair in Exemplary Life Sciences. The Vilcek Foundation named Dr. Verma as the recipient of its 2008 prize in biomedical science. He has also been conferred the NIH Outstanding Investigator Award (1988).

Social Sciences

Prof. Amartya Sen is Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998. His other awards include the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian honor awarded by the President of India; the Senator Giovanni Agnelli International Prize in Ethics; the Alan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Award; the Edinburgh Medal; the Brazilian Ordem do Merito Cientifico (Grã-Cruz); the Presidency of the Italian Republic Medal; the Eisenhower Medal; Honorary Companion of Honour (U.K.), and the George C. Marshall Award.

References

• "Infosys' Murthy yearns for more Science research in India". Retrieved 2009-03-13.
• "Infosys India prize to promote research in sciences". Retrieved 2009-03-13.
• "Infy to promote science research". Retrieved 2009-03-13.
• "Infosys Institutes "Infosys India Prize" in Five Categories" (Press release). Infosys Technologies Ltd. 200-02-17. Retrieved 2009-03-13. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)