Infosys Prize winners: Full details

Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) announced the winners of the Infosys Prize 2019 in six categories - Engineering and Computer Sciences, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences on Thursday.

The awards to the winner will be conferred by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on January 7, 2020.

Physical Sciences

G Mugesh, Professor, Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru bagged the Infosys Prize 2019 for Physical Sciences. He was awarded for his seminal work in the chemical synthesis of small molecules and nanomaterials for biomedical applications. His work has contributed to the understanding of the role of trace elements, selenium and iodine, in thyroid hormone activation and metabolism, and this research has led to major medical advances.

Engineering and Computer Science

Sunita Sarawagi, Institute Chair Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay got the Infosys Prize 2019 for Engineering and Computer Science. She was awarded for her research in databases, data mining, machine learning and natural language processing, and for important applications of these research techniques. The prize recognizes her pioneering work in developing information extraction techniques for unstructured data. Prof. Sarawagi’s work has practical applications in helping clean up unstructured data like addresses on the web and in repositories which then helps in more efficient handling of queries.

Humanities

Manu V Devadevan, Assistant Professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi was awarded the Infosys Prize 2019 for Humanities. He got the award for his original and wide-ranging work on pre-modern South India. He critically reinterprets much of the conventional wisdom about the cultural, religious and social history of the Deccan and South India. Dr. Devadevan's primary research interests include political and economic processes in pre-modern South India, literary practices in South India and the study of ancient inscriptions from the region.

Life Sciences

Manjula Reddy, Chief Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad was awarded the Infosys Prize 2019 for Life Sciences. She was awarded for her groundbreaking discoveries concerning the structure of cell walls in bacteria. Dr. Reddy and her colleagues have revealed critical steps of cell wall growth that are fundamental for understanding bacterial biology. This work could potentially help in creating a new class of antibiotics to combat antibiotic resistant microbes.

Mathematical Sciences

Siddhartha Mishra, Professor, Department of Mathematics, ETH Zürich was awarded the Infosys Prize 2019 for Mathematical Sciences.

He was awarded for his outstanding contributions to Applied Mathematics, particularly for designing numerical tools for solving problems in the real world. Prof. Mishra's work has been used in climate models, in astrophysics, aerodynamics, and plasma physics. He has produced codes for complicated realistic problems such as tsunamis generated by rock slides, and waves in the solar atmosphere.

Social Sciences

Anand Pandian, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, Johns Hopkins University was awarded the Infosys Prize 2019 for Social Sciences. He was awarded for his imaginative work on ethics, selfhood and the creative process. Prof. Pandian's research encompasses several themes such as cinema, public culture, ecology, nature and the theory and methods of anthropology. His writing pushes the boundaries of how anthropologists render into words the worlds they encounter. His work breaks new ground.

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