Bengaluru, India – November 14, 2024: The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF), today, announced the winners of the Infosys Prize 2024 in six categories—Economics, Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, and Physical Sciences. Since its inception in 2009, the Infosys Prize has honored the remarkable accomplishments of individuals whose research and scholarship significantly impact India. The prize for each category comprises a gold medal, a citation, and a prize purse of USD 100,000 (or its equivalent in INR). The event was hosted at ISF’s office in Bengaluru.

The laureates of Infosys Prize 2024 were selected by an international panel of jurors comprised of renowned scholars and experts. Over the past 15 years, the ISF has recognized groundbreaking research and scholarship that has influenced various aspects of human life. In 2024, the prize, with a new direction, decided to honor researchers under 40, emphasizing the need for early recognition of exceptional talent.

The winners of the Infosys Prize 2024 were announced by the trustees of ISF — Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan (President, Board of Trustees), Mr. Narayana Murthy, Mr. K. Dinesh, Dr. Pratima Murthy, Mr. Mohandas Pai, and Mr. S. D. Shibulal. The other trustees of ISF — Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Mr. Srinath Batni, and Mr. Salil Parekh — extended their congratulations to this year’s recipients.

The Infosys Prize remains the largest award in India that acknowledges excellence in science and research. In addition, laureates of the Infosys Prize have gone on to receive several prestigious international awards, including the Nobel Prize (Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo), the Fields medal (Manjul Bhargava and Akshay Venkatesh), the Dan David Prize (Sanjay Subrahmanyam), the MacArthur ‘genius’ Grant (Sunil Amrith), the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (Ashoke Sen), and the Marconi Prize (Hari Balakrishnan). Several laureates have been elected fellows of the Royal Society, among them Gagandeep Kang, who became the first Indian woman to be elected Fellow of the Royal Society.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, President, Infosys Science Foundation, said, “The Infosys Prize has played a pivotal role in recognizing brilliant minds whose contributions are shaping the future of research and science. This year, we refocused to reward early career researchers under the age of 40, recognizing their immense potential and the promise of paradigm-changing work. On behalf of the Infosys Science Foundation, I extend my heartfelt congratulations to the winners of the Infosys Prize 2024, whose achievements reflect the vital connection between science and society, inspiring the next generation of innovators.”

The winners of the Infosys Prize 2024 in the six categories are:

Economics

The Infosys Prize 2024 in Economics is awarded to Arun Chandrasekhar, Professor, Department of Economics, Stanford University, 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 collection and mapping of networks data, from multiple villages in Karnataka, provides a testbed for studying important questions in development economics. Prof. Chandrasekhar’s work sheds light on the role of networks in the functioning of modern economy. His work provides critical ingredients for better policy making.

Engineering and Computer Science

The Infosys Prize 2024 in Engineering and Computer Science is awarded to Shyam Gollakota, Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington for his impactful research and technology translation spanning multiple engineering domains in societally relevant areas such as smartphone-based affordable healthcare tools for low- and middle-income countries, battery-free computing and communication, and augmentation of human auditory sensing with artificial intelligence.

Humanities and Social Sciences

The Infosys Prize 2024 in Humanities and Social Sciences is awarded to Mahmood Kooria, Lecturer, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, for his truly outstanding and seminal contributions to the study of maritime Islam in a global perspective, with particular focus on Kerala in the pre-modern and early modern eras. His pioneering studies have revealed the role of Islamic law in shaping economic, political, and cultural transformations on the Indian Ocean littorals.

Life Sciences

The Infosys Prize 2024 in Life Sciences is awarded to Siddhesh Kamat, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, for his discoveries concerning bioactive lipids and their receptors, and their metabolic and signaling pathways. His research, using advanced methods to understand the function of lipids, a key component of cells, has important implications for understanding the role of these molecules in a range of cellular functions and human diseases.

Mathematical Sciences

The Infosys Prize 2024 in Mathematical Sciences is awarded to Neena Gupta, Professor in the Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Unit at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, for her work on the Zariski Cancellation Problem, a fundamental problem in algebraic geometry first posed in 1949 by Oscar Zariski, one of the founders of modern algebraic geometry. In 2014, she proved the striking result that Asanuma’s 3-dimensional affine variety yields a negative answer to Zariski’s original Cancellation Problem in positive characteristic.

Physical Sciences

The Infosys Prize 2024 in Physical Sciences is awarded to Vedika Khemani, Associate Professor in the Physics Department at Stanford University, who has made wide-ranging and groundbreaking contributions to theoretical and experimental non-equilibrium quantum matter, most notably the discovery of time-crystals. This could have important implications for the future of quantum computing and other technologies.