India's contribution to world of knowledge is growing quickly, says Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt

Bengaluru: The Infosys Science Foundation on Saturday awarded the winners of the Infosys Prize 2023 for their contributions across six fields at a felicitation ceremony here.

The winners were awarded with a pure gold medal, a citation, and a prize purse of $100,000 by Nobel laureate Professor Brian Schmidt for their stellar contributions in Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences.

Speaking at the event, Schmidt, said, "The awardees, who cover the breadth of the academy, are world leaders in research and its translation for the benefit of humanity. The world needs such knowledge to help us live peacefully and sustainably on a planet that isn’t getting any bigger, even though humanity’s footprint is."

'India’s contribution to the world of knowledge is growing quickly, and I am honoured to be part of a celebration of some of the most significant advances that we are honoring in this year’s ceremony,' he said.

Highlighting the importance of investing in science and research, Kris Gopalakrishnan, president, Infosys Science Foundation, said, 'The Infosys Prize, in its 15th year now, continues to focus on recognising important scientific research and inspire future generations to take up careers in science. Bringing scientific research into mainstream conversation is the need of the hour and we require coordinated effort to ensure that the scientific environment of the country goes from strength to strength.

'We congratulate our laureates for their exceptional achievements. Their work is instrumental in India’s growth story, and we are proud to honour them,' he said.

The Infosys Prize 2023 in Engineering and Computer Science was awarded to Sachchida Nand Tripathi, Professor, Sustainable Energy Engineering (SEE), IIT-Kanpur, for the deployment of large-scale sensor-based air quality network and mobile laboratory for hyper local measurements of pollution, data generation and analysis using artificial intelligence and machine learning for effective air quality management and citizens awareness.

In Humanities, Jahnavi Phalkey, Founding Director, Science Gallery Bengaluru was awarded the prize for her insights into the individual, institutional, and material histories of scientific research in modern India, whereas Arun Kumar Shukla, Professor, Biological Sciences and Bioengineering, IIT-Kanpur was awarded prize in Life Sciences for his outstanding and far-reaching contributions to the field of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) biology.

In Mathematical Sciences, Bhargav Bhatt, Fernholz Joint Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University was awarded for his contributions to arithmetic geometry and commutative algebra, while the prize in Physical Sciences was awarded to Mukund Thattai, Professor, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Bioinformatics, National Centre for Biological Sciences, in recognition of his contributions to evolutionary cell biology.

The prize in Social Sciences was awarded to Karuna Mantena, Professor, Political Science, Columbia University, for her research on the theory of imperial rule, and the claim that this late imperial ideology became one of the important factors in the emergence of modern social theory.

Over the past 15 years, the Infosys Prize has recognised mid-career researchers for their impactful work across disciplines and significant contributions to scientific research India.