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Follow UsBANGALORE, INDIA: The Infosys Science Foundation on Monday awarded the winners of Infosys Prize 2011, in recognition of their outstanding achievements and contributions to the field of scientific research.
The Guest of Honour, former president of India, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, felicitated the six laureates across five categories - Engineering and Computer Science, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences at a grand ceremony in Bangalore.
The prize in each category comprises a 22-carat gold medallion, a citation expounding the laureate’s work and Rs. 50 lacs as prize money.
Expanding the scope of the awards with the aim to recognize research work being undertaken in other fields, the Infosys Science Foundation also announced the introduction of a sixth category for the Infosys Prize 2012. The new category — Humanities will cover Philosophy, History, Archeology, Linguistics and Literary Studies. The Social Sciences category will continue to include Economics, Political Science, International Relations, Anthropology, Sociology and Psychology.
The ceremony commenced with a welcome address by T.V. Mohandas Pai, president of the Board of Trustees, Infosys Science Foundation. During the course of the evening, the jury chairs of the five categories — Prof. Pradeep K. Khosla for Engineering and Computer Science, Prof. Inder Verma for Life Sciences, Prof. S.R. Varadhan for Mathematical Sciences, Prof. Shrinivas Kulkarni for Physical Sciences and Prof. Amartya Sen for Social Sciences — described the importance of the winners’ work and introduced the laureates. The six winners of this year were drawn from a total of over 240 nominations.
The jury, comprising noted scientists and professors from across the globe, evaluated the achievements of the nominees against the highest standards of international research.
Engineering and Computer Science
Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb, Gurmukh and Veena Mehta Endowed Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, and the Director of the Kanpur Genetic Algorithms Laboratory, Kanpur, India.
Prof. Deb was selected for his fundamental contributions to the emerging field of Evolutionary Multi-objective Optimization (EMO) and for his ideas of optimization and computing principles to devise efficient algorithms that are fast, accurate and scalable.
Life Sciences
Dr. Imran Siddiqi, Scientist and Group Leader, CSIR - Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, India.
Dr. Siddiqi was awarded for his breakthrough contributions to the basic understanding of clonal seed formation in plants, which could revolutionize agriculture for poor farmers in developing countries.
Mathematical Sciences
Prof. Kannan Soundararajan, Professor of Mathematics and the Director of the Mathematics Research Center, Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA.
Prof. Soundararajan was recognized for his path breaking work in multiplicative number theory and the analytic theory of L-functions which led to the resolution of the holomorphic quantum unique ergodicity conjecture.
Physical Sciences
Prof. Sriram Ramaswamy, Professor, Centre for Condensed Matter theory (CCMT), Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.
Prof. Ramaswamy was rewarded for his pioneering work on the mechanics and statistics of active matter, that has given birth and shape to this rapidly growing field.
Social Sciences — Economics
Prof. Raghuram G. Rajan, Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Finance and the Charles M. Harper Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Chicago, USA.
Prof. Rajan was chosen for his outstanding work in Economics, specifically on financial intermediation and on the economic and financial underpinnings of recent crisis.
Social Sciences — Political Science and International Relations
Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President and Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, India.
Dr. Mehta was picked out for his exemplary contributions to urgent issues of Indian politics and public policy, as well as for his willingness to broaden the sphere of public reason and to challenge reigning orthodoxies, while remaining committed to institution building, as exemplified by his constructive leadership of the Centre for Policy Research.
Congratulating the jury chairs and the laureates, Pai said, “Scientific research is the bedrock of social and technological progress of any economy. There is a significant depth of scientific talent in this country and the objective of the Infosys Prize is to identify and encourage such outstanding talent. This award is not only intended to recognize outstanding scientists, but also to motivate the entire research community and persuade bright young people to adopt careers in research.”
Dr Kalam, the eleventh President of India, delivered a poignant speech after felicitating the winners of Infosys Prize 2011. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Kalam said, “I am extremely delighted to be present here today and would like to congratulate each of the awardees for their highly impressive achievements and individual contributions in their respective fields and society at large.”
He further added, “We all live in a knowledge based era and a nation’s strength is truly judged by the quality of collective knowledge. It is extremely important to recognize and encourage productive academic pursuits. Such initiatives will certainly boost the confidence of researchers in physical, biological and social sciences and related fields.”