Infosys Prize- 2015

Infosys Prize 2015

Question: Who will give the award, Infosys Prize -2015?

(a) Narendra Modi
(b) Pranab Mukherjee
(c) Arun Jaitley
(d) N.R. Narayana Murthy

Ans (b)

Related facts:

  • Infosys Science Foundation on 16 November 2015 announced the names of the winners of Infosys Prize for the year 2015.
  • The Infosys Prize 2015 was announced for six categories, namely, Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences.
  • The winners of the Infosys Prize 2015 were evaluated by a panel of jurors comprising of esteemed scientists and professors from around the world.
  • The jury chairs of the six categories are: Prof. Pradeep K. Khosla (University of California San Diego) for Engineering and Computer Science; Prof. Amartya Sen (Harvard University) for Humanities; Dr. Inder Verma (Salk Institute of Biological Sciences) for Life Sciences; Prof. Srinivasa S. R. Varadhan (New York University) for Mathematical Sciences; Prof. Shrinivas Kulkarni (California Institute of Technology) for Physical Sciences; and Prof. Kaushik Basu (The World Bank) for Social Sciences.
  • The prize for each category consists of money prize of Rs. 65 Lakhs, a 22 karat gold medallion and a citation certificate.
  • The winners will be awarded on 13 February 2016 in a ceremony at New Delhi by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee.

List of Winners:

  • Engineering and Computer Science:Won by Prof. Umesh Waghmare of Theoretical Sciences Unit, of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore.
  • He was awarded for his innovative use of first-principles theories and modeling in insightful investigations of microscopic mechanisms responsible for specific properties of certain materials such as topological insulators, ferroelectrics, multiferroics and graphene.
  • Humanities:Won by Prof. Jonardon Ganeri, Global Network Professor of Philosophy, New York University and Recurrent Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, King’s College London, UK.
  • He was awarded for his originality in interpreting and scrutinizing analytical Indian Philosophy and shedding light on dichotomy between Indian and Greek traditions of philosophical reasoning.
  • Life Sciences:Won by Dr. Amit Sharma, Group Leader, Structural and Computational Biology Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi.
  • He was awarded for his pioneering contributions towards deciphering the molecular structure, at the atomic level, of key proteins involved in the biology of pathogenesis of the deadly malaria parasite.
  • Mathematical Sciences: Won by Prof. Mahan Mj, Professor of Mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
  • He was awarded for establishing a central conjecture in the Thurston program to study hyperbolic 3-manifolds and introduced important new tools to study fundamental groups of complex manifolds.
  • Physical Sciences: Won by Prof. G Ravindra Kumar, Professor in the Department of Nuclear and Atomic Physics (DNAP), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.
  • He was awarded for his contributions to the physics of high intensity laser matter interactions.
  • These results have significance to testing stellar and astrophysical scenarios.
  • Social Sciences: Won by Dr. Srinath Raghavan, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.
  • He was awarded for outstanding research that synthesizes military history, international politics, and strategic analysis into powerful and imaginative perspectives on India in global context.
  • The Infosys Prize is awarded under the aegis of the Infosys Science Foundation, a not-for-profit trust instituted in February 2009.
  • The Infosys Science Foundation is funded by a corpus which today stands at over INR 130 Crore (USD 20 million)
  • The first time in 2008 only Infosys Prize of mathematics was awarded.
  • After the establishment of Infosys Science Foundation four more categories were included.
  • The Prize was originally given across five categories: Engineering and Computer Science, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences but a sixth category – the Humanities – was added in 2012.

Reference:

http://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/

http://www.infosys.com/newsroom/press-releases/Pages/ISF-announces-infosys-prize-2015.aspx