Infosys today announced winners of Infosys Prize 2012 for outstanding research across six catogories - Engineering and Computer Science,Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences.
Dr Ashish Lele of National chemical Laboratories, Pune won in the Engineering and Computer Science category, Prof. Sanjay Subrahmanyam (University of California) in history, Prof Amit Chaudhuri (University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK) in contemporary literature, while in Life Sciences: Cellular Orgainisation and Signalling, Prof.Dr Satyajit Mayor (National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore) bagged the award.
Prof Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University won in the Mathematical Sciences, while senior Scientist Ayyappanpillai Ajayagosh (National Institute for Interdiscplinary Science and Technology won it in Physical Sciences, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,Thiruvananthapuram).In Social Sciences Prof Arunava Sen (Indian Statiscal Institute,Delhi,bagged it.
The awardees will each be presented a gold medal, a prize money of Rs 50 lakh, except those in humanities, at a function in Delhi on Jan 3 2013. Former Norwegian Prime Minister Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland will felicitate the winners.
Infosys Chairman Emeritus N R Narayana Murthy and top company officials were present when the awards were announced.
Infosys Executive Co-Chairman Kris Gopalkrishnan,who spoke, said he is glad the Indian government is taking steps to give a thrust to education and research like US President Barack Obama was doing in his country.
"This is a continuous process. We have to invest in all stages of education - primary, secondary and tertiary. We have to also invest in research," he told reporters to a query on Obama giving a new thrust for education and research in USA.
India was increasing the number of seats in colleges, scholars, fellowships and students. Infosys has been doing likewise in education and research, Kris said. "We recognise outstanding individuals and firmly believe they will become icons and inspiration to next generation," he said.
Asked if India was lagging in higher education and research as a good number of the Indian origin prize winners were based outside the country, he said it is not necessarily so as the jury has certain criteria and are allowed to look at research by experts of Indian origin.
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