Infosys to announce winners of Prize 2020 on December 2

Bengaluru: Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) will announce the winners of the Infosys Prize 2020 on December 2. The Infosys Prize, which was instituted to elevate the prestige of science and research, also aims to inspire the youth to choose a vocation in research. The prize for each category comprises a gold medal, a citation, and USD 100,000 (or its equivalent in rupees) this year.

Infosys Science Foundation will choose scholars across six categories - Engineering and Computer Sciences, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences. A distinguished jury, comprising leaders in each of these fields, evaluates the work of the nominees against the standards of international research, placing the winners on a par with the finest researchers in the world.

"Over the last 12 years, the Infosys Prize has chosen the very best contemporary researchers and scientists who have gone on to distinguish themselves further. This reaffirms our faith in our process and purpose. We realized that there was a serious need to bring science to the fore and make it fashionable again, especially for the younger generation who need to see contemporary role models in these fields and be inspired by them," said N.R. Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys, President - Board of Trustees, Infosys Science Foundation. Since its inception in 2009, Infosys Science Foundation has felicitated works of 68 laureates from not just institutes like the IITs, IISc, ISIs, and NCBS but also CSIR labs across the county, niche research institutes like JNCSAR and Harish Chandra Research Institute, among others.

Last year, this time, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, early winners of this Prize, won the Nobel memorial prize in Economics. Manjul Bhargava and Akshay Venkatesh went on to win the Fields Medal – one of the highest honors in mathematics given only once in four years to those under 40 years of age. Gagandeep Kang became the first woman from India to be elected as a member of the Royal Society. This year, Ashoke Sen and Thanu Padmanabhan, who were awarded Infosys Prize in 2009, made it to the top 30 in their field in a list of top 2 percent leading scientists in the world, according to a paper published by Stanford researchers.