Infosys Prize to be announced virtually on Dec 2

The Infosys Science Foundation will announce the winners of the Infosys Prize 2020 at a virtual conference on December 2.

The Foundation will honor scholars across six categories: Engineering and Computer Sciences, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences.

N R Narayana Murthy, Infosys co-founder and president of the Board of Trustees, Infosys Science Foundation, said, "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 realised 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."

The prize for each category comprises a pure gold medal, a citation, and a cash prize of $1,00,000 this year.

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 Prize in Economics. Manjul Bhargava and Akshay Venkatesh went on to win the Fields Medal – one of the highest honours in mathematics given only once in four years to those under 40 years of age.