Infosys Prize aims to inspire youth for research: Murthy

The Infosys Prize, now in its fourth year, recognises ground-breaking research and inspires more youth to enter the field of research, said NR Narayana Murthy, chairman emeritus, Infosys and trustee, Infosys Science Foundation.

He was speaking on Friday at a function where the winners of The Infosys Prize 2012 were announced.

The awards recognise researchers from India and of Indian origin, who have made significant contributions in the fields of engineering and computer science, humanities, life sciences, mathematics, physical sciences and social sciences.

“We want to create enough excitement among youth with the prospect of this prize. If we can get 10,000 of these students to come to research, that would be great,” he said.

“But research in India is already changing. If you look at the number of PhDs coming out of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the IITs, it’s actually increasing,” he said.

The Infosys Science Foundation has little to do with the selection of the winners, he said, adding that they relied on the jury members. The jury chairs of the six categories were: Prof  Amartya Sen, Humanities; Dr Kaushik Basu, Social Sciences; Prof Shrinivas Kulkarni, Physical Sciences; Prof Pradeep K Khosla, Engineering & Computer Science; Prof Srinivasa SR Varadhan, Mathematical Sciences; and Prof Inder Verma, Life Sciences.

“Our motive with Infosys Prize is to invite truly world-class scholars in various fields and allow them to select their own jury committees and decide on the winner. No one from the Infosys Science Foundation participates in these celebrations and we ourselves come to know only a day before the winners are announced,” Murthy said.

SD Shibulal, Infosys CEO and managing director, said three of the seven winners were not based in India and that Indian research still had a long way to go before competing at a global stage.
 Indian research has to go a long way in terms of infrastructure and global recognition, he said.

"Institutes are still not featuring in the top 100 in global lists. But the government outlay for science and technology is improving and there is now greater awareness and more youth are moving towards research," he added.

Shibulal also spoke favourably about the increase in awareness of the prize among the scientific community.  “One thing I have noticed in the last few years is that the quality of the nominations has gone up ... Also, I can clearly gauge the tremendous amount of pride displayed by the winners,” he said.

Bangalore-based scientist among the honoured
Dr Satyajit Mayor from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, was among the winners of this year’s Infosys Prize.
Expressing his happiness, he said such awards would help in boosting the morale of the scientific community in India.

“Indian researchers, as a community, are particularly under-confident and if there are ways and means of recognising their work,  it gives them the much needed boost,” he said.

Mayor, who has been working in India for the past 17 years, however, added that while lacking in confidence, the scientific community also shared a “tremendous sense of collaboration”.
Mayor, who was recognised for his outstanding contributions in the field of Life Sciences, works in a specialised area that studies cell structure in a living organism.

“I have been working at the lab in NCBS since 1995. We’re trying to understand the structure of cells and how cells organise molecules and use energy and so forth,” he said.

Understanding the basic structure of a living organism can result in breakthroughs in various fields including medicine. “If you have cancer, understanding the cell structure will help you figure out how to pre-dispose medicines on the cancerous cells,” he said.

The winners of the Infosys Prize 2012 are:

• Dr Ashish Lele from the National Chemical Laboratories, Pune, for Engineering and Computer Science.
• Dr Satyajit Mayor from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, for Life Sciences.
• Prof Sanjay Subrahmanyam from the University of California, Los Angeles, for Humanities (History).
• Prof Amit Chaudhury from the University of East Anglia, UK, for Humanities (Literary Studies).
• Prof Manjul Bhargava from Princeton University for Mathematics.
• Dr Ayyappan Pillai from the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Thiruvananthapuram, for Physical Sciences.
• Prof Arunava Sen, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi.

The prize for each category includes a gold medallion, a citation certificate and prize money of `50 lakh. The awards will be given away at a function to be held in New Delhi on January 3, 2013 by Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister of Norway and former director general of the World Health Organisation.