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Infosys Science Foundation Announces Infosys Prize 2011 Awards
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 17 November 2011, 01:25 IST |
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Bangalore: The Infosys Science Foundation announced the winners of the Infosys Prize 2011, recognizing outstanding contribution across five categories of scientific research: Engineering and Computer Science, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences.
Entering its third year, Infosys continues to carry the largest reward in India for scientific research. The winners were announced at a press conference held at the Infosys campus in Bangalore and unveiled the "Infosys Prize Lectures". The Lectures, a series of public talks, will showcase research and experiences of laureates and distinguished jurors of the Prize, with a view to motivate and encourage young talents to undertake research as a career, thereby advancing and promoting scientific research in India. The jury panel for five disciples included Prof. Amartya Sen for Social Sciences, Prof. Srinivasa Kulkarni for Physical Sciences, Prof. Inder Verma for Life Sciences, Prof. S.R. Vardhan for Mathematical Sciences and Prof. Pradeep K. Khosla for Engineering and Computer Science.
The winner of Infosys Prize 2011 for Engineering and Computer Science is Prof. Kalayanmoy Deb who demonstrated how fundamental ideas of optimization and computing principles can be combined to devise efficient algorithm that are fast, accurate and scalable. His research addresses both fundamental and applied aspect of optimization, developed synergistic and computationally efficient algorithms, and demonstrated their usefulness in industries such as logistics and refineries.
Dr. Imran Siddqi is awarded in Life Sciences category. The Scientist and Group leader at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has made a breakthrough contribution to the basic understanding of clonal seed formation in plants. Apomixis (asexual reproduction) could revolutionize agriculture for poor farmers in developing countries.
The Infosys prize for Mathematical Sciences is awarded to Prof. Kannan Soundarajan for his path-breaking work in analytic number theory and development of new techniques to study critical values of general zeta functions to prove the Quantum Unique Ergodicity Conjecture for classical holomorphic forms.
Prof. Sriram Ramaswamy is awarded the prize in Physical Sciences for his pioneering work in the field of active matter that enables a detailed exploration in several aspects of collective behavior of living systems as interacting mechanical entities with distributed input and dissipation of energy.
The award in Social Sciences category was split into two sub-divisions. The Infosys Prize for Social Sciences: Economics is awarded to Prof. Raghuram Govind Rajan. He received the appreciation for his work in analyzing the contribution of financial development to economic growth as well as the potentially harmful effects of dysfunctional incentives that lead to excessive risk taking. Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta is awarded the Infosys Prize for Social Sciences: Political Science and International Relations for his contribution to political philosophy and social theory and also for his insightful analysis of India's politics and public.
The candidates for the prize are selected on a global scale whose work has made a wide impact in India. This year around 200 nominations were done for the Infosys Prize. Prof. Srinivas Kumar said that it's hard to comment which category had the toughest competition as it has been a long process. The eligibility criterion for award was that the candidate has to be an Indian resident who has worked for India or a candidate whose work has made an impact in India. The nominees are ideally between the ages of 40-50, in exceptional cases it can extend up to 55.
Prof. Sriram Ramaswamy who received the award in Physical Sciences attended the conference and was highly delighted on receiving the award. He said, "Prize like this serve as a motivation. Its feels great when we are paid for doing what we like the most." He feels that prize like this can motivate the younger generation to get into research as the field has not only got prizes but some other fantastic things as well.
All the winners will be awarded with a 22-karat gold medallion and prize money of 
50 lakh for their outstanding contribution to scientific research. The award ceremony for Infosys Award 2011 will be held on January 9, 2012 in Bangalore, and the winners will be facilitated by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.
50 lakh for their outstanding contribution to scientific research. The award ceremony for Infosys Award 2011 will be held on January 9, 2012 in Bangalore, and the winners will be facilitated by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.
