Engineering and Computer Science:

The Infosys Prize for Engineering and Computer Science is awarded to Professor Ashish Lele for his incisive contributions in molecular tailoring of stimuli responsive smart polymeric gels; exploring the anomalous behavior of rheologically complex fluids, and for building the bridge between macromolecular dynamics and polymer processing.

Professor Ashish Lele is a Scientist at the National Chemical Laboratories (NCL), Pune, India.

Jury Citation: Prof. Lele has made many novel and impactful contributions to polymer science and engineering.  These include molecular tailoring of stimuli responsive smart hydrogels, new insights into the anomalous rheological behavior of complex fluids and the coupling of macromolecular dynamics and polymer processing. 

He has many `firsts’ to his credit. The experimental discovery of novel macroscopic self-organization in stimuli responsive gels and the discovery of self-healing gels were important breakthroughs. His theoretical firsts include laying the foundations of a mean field theoretical framework of specific weak molecular interactions in gels; elucidation of the unusual amoeba-like dynamics of ring polymers; new insights into the role of convective constrained release of polymer chains in causing the industrially important stick-slip instability in flows of polymer melts, and the exploration of the critical role of flow-induced orientation of nanoclays.