Ex-Army officer, monk among Infosys Prize winners

Infosys Science Foundation recognizes researchers across six categories

Using advanced computer simulations to predict the properties of materials that potentially could be used in an aircraft or a computer chip is what Umesh Waghmare’s research revolves around. The beauty of his research involves predicting without experiments in laboratories, breaking convention and potentially cutting down cost and time to manufacture these.

On Monday, Waghmare was named as one of the winners of the Infosys Prize 2015, an effort of the Infosys Science Foundation to recognise and award leading researchers in engineering and computer science, humanities, life sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences and social sciences.

The Infosys Science Foundation is a not-for-profit trust set up in February 2009 by India’s second largest information technology services company. There were 206 nominations for the Infosys Prize this year against 136 in 2009. Nominations across the six categories were almost even, said S D Shibulal, president and board of trustees, Infosys Science Foundation.

There were 44 nominations from engineering and computer sciences, 32 from humanities, 40 for life sciences, 27 in mathematical sciences, 40 from physical sciences and 23 from social sciences. The nomination criteria included merit and work in India. A professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Waghmare was one among the six people that were awarded $100,000 (Rs 65 lakh) each for their research works. The others were Jonardon Ganeri, a visiting Professor of Philosophy, New York University; Mahan Maharaj, a monk who is an associate professor of mathematics, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University, Howrah; Amit Sharma from International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi; G Ravindra Kumar (professor in the department of nuclear and atomic physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), and Srinath Raghavan (an ex-army officer and a senior fellow at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi).

While Waghmare won the award for his contributions to material science in engineering and computer science category, Ganeri’s contributions in analytical Indian philosophy gained him the recognition in humanities. Sharma won the award for his work in life sciences on study of malarial parasite, while Maharaj won the prize for his contributions to mathematical sciences. Kumar was awarded for his research in physical sciences and Raghavan’s work on military history and international politics in social sciences stream gained him the recognition.

“It’s predominantly an award for research and science in India. The impact of what these scientists are working on will take time to get implemented,” said Shibulal, also a co-founder and former CEO & MD of Infosys.

The Infosys Science Foundation is one of the few such initiatives for recognising research achievements in India, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done. India hasn’t reached the critical mass in terms of scientific research, according to Waghmare. “I feel that the way people look at science research and engineering research has to change. You can’t be short-sighted and say I want to see the outcomes tomorrow here.”

Infosys Prize winners, over the years, have gone on to win many international accolades. Manjul Bhargava, a Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University who had won the Infosys Prize in 2012 for Mathematical Sciences in 2014 won the Fields Medal, considered the Nobel Prize in Mathematics. Ashoke Sen, who had won the award in 2009, bagged Russian physicist and billionaire Yuri Milner-backed Fundamental Physics Prize in 2012.