.png)
Introduction:
Internationally, numerous awards have been presented to both men and women in science for their achievements — the Nobel Prize being the most famous of them all. Others, like the Fields Medal or the Abel Prize, the Breakthrough Prize are also prestigious. In India too, awards like the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award have been conferred for excellence in Science and Technology. Similarly, the Infosys Prize given by the Infosys Science Foundation continues to reward innovations and excellent research in various fields and, at the same time, inspire young minds to take up research in the future and strive for such excellence, ultimately driving forward research in India.
The first Infosys Prize was awarded in 2008 to Prof. Manindra Agarwal for his outstanding contribution to the field of complexity theory, a branch of Mathematics and Computer Science studying the efficiency of various algorithms and their running times. In 2009, the Infosys Science Foundation was established, setting up a trust and a jury for selecting the candidates for the Prize. The first jury consisted of eminent personalities like Prof. Amartya Sen, Prof. Inder Verma, Prof. Subra Suresh, Prof. Shrinivas Kulkarni, and Prof. Srinivasa Varadhan. It was also decided that the categories in which the Prize would be given were Engineering & Computer Science, Physical Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Life Sciences, and Social Sciences.
The Prize Over The Years:
Over the past 15 years, the Prize has recognized numerous eminent personalities. Some notable ones include:
· Prof. Ashoke Sen (2009 - Mathematical Sciences)
· Prof. Manjul Bhargava (2012 - Mathematical Sciences)
· Dr. Manjula Reddy (2019 - Life Sciences)
· Dr. Chandrasekhar Nair (2021 - Engineering & Computer Science)
The 2024 Awardees
Engineering & Computer Science
The Infosys Prize 2024 in Engineering and Computer Science has been awarded to Prof. Shyam Gollakota for the development of affordable smartphone-based healthcare tools targeted towards underdeveloped and developing countries. This has the potential to save countless lives of people who are unable to access and afford expensive healthcare. He has also contributed to research in Battery-Free Computing and Communication, and the application of Artificial Intelligence for enhancing human auditory sensing.
Physical Science
The Infosys Prize 2024 in Physical Sciences has been awarded to Prof. Vedika Khemani for her outstanding research in the field of non-equilibrium quantum matter, especially on time crystals, which appear to break the time symmetry of the Universe. Like a spatial crystal repeating in space, a time crystal exhibits periodicity in time, oscillating between multiple states (just like a pendulum). Although the work of Prof. Khemani did not start specifically dealing with time crystals, a reviewer for one of her pre-print papers pointed out that she and her colleagues had, without intending to, outlined a working model for time crystals. By generalizing the problem, Prof. Khemani theoretically demonstrated in a PRL paper how the required state can be achieved. Later, in collaboration with Google's AI group, they demonstrated an experimental realization of the time crystal, which was published in Nature.
Mathematical Sciences
The Infosys Prize 2024 in Mathematical Sciences has been awarded to Prof. Neena Gupta for her work on the Zariski Cancellation Problem. A version of the problem was first posed in 1949 by Oscar Zariski, one of the founders of modern algebraic geometry. The problem can be better visualized as follows: Consider two geometric objects with the same structure and shape in a given dimension. If we now extrude the objects into a new dimension, do they still retain the same structure? Although it was previously known that the answer to this problem is yes for points, curves, or surfaces, Prof. Gupta proved that for a 3-dimensional object, the answer would be negative.
Life Sciences
The Infosys Prize 2024 in Life Sciences has been awarded to Dr. Siddhesh Kamat for his discoveries concerning bioactive lipids, their receptors, and their metabolic and signaling pathways. His research concluded that dysregulation of a lipid called lyso-phosphatidylserine (lyso-PS), caused by mutations in its metabolizing enzyme, results in specific neurodegenerative diseases, including neuroinflammation linked to PHARC, a rare autosomal neurodegenerative disease.
Humanities & Social Sciences
The Infosys Prize 2024 in Humanities and Social Sciences has been awarded to Prof. Mahmood Kooria of the University of Edinburgh for his seminal contributions to the study of maritime Islam in a global perspective, with a particular focus on Kerala during the pre-modern and early modern eras. He is one of the first to study the impact of Islam not only on the merchant-sailor community but also on the scholars, thinkers, and poets of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He has also studied in great detail the role of Islam in shaping the culture of pre-modern and early modern Malabar and the cultural history of Shafi‘i Islam in parts of India surrounded by the Indian Ocean.
Economics
The Infosys Prize 2024 in Economics has been awarded to Prof. Arun Chandrasekhar for his contribution to the study of social and economic networks using innovative data sets and drawing on theoretical methods from machine learning and computer science. His research primarily focused on the mechanisms of information propagation through networks, especially in places with little to no access to formal institutions, like in underdeveloped and developing regions. Drawing on observational data from Karnataka villages, he discovered how networks promote cooperation. Prof. Chandrasekhar has also developed techniques for the efficient distribution of critical information while reducing financial expenditures to combat poverty. His study has far-reaching impacts, especially in a developing country like India.
Conclusion
As in previous years, the 2024 Infosys Prize celebrates individuals from diverse fields who have made significant contributions to their respective domains. This has not only promoted science and research in India but has also created significant impacts on the global research community. Their legacies, and that of the Infosys Prize, continue to inspire millions of Indians. They encourage the pursuit of research and the discovery of new ideas to shape the future.
Don't forget to catch the award ceremony on the 11th of January 2025!
Author: Pranjal Sengupta
Editor: Harshit Agarwal
Illustrator: Bristi Paul
Disclaimer: This article has been issued solely for educational purpose and has no link to the Infosys Group in any form.
Comments