Six researchers win Infosys Prize 2026

BENGALURU: The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) on Thursday announced the winners of the Infosys Prize 2026 in six categories.

The six categories are economics, engineering and computer science, humanities and social sciences, life sciences, mathematical sciences, and physical sciences.

The Infosys Prize 2026 in Economics is awarded to Karthik Sastry, Associate Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, for his pioneering contributions to the field of climate change, and technological innovation, and to the study of business cycle fluctuations.

Engineering and Computer Science award is awarded to Swarun Kumar, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, for his pioneering work in low-power wireless networks beyond information delivery to perception and action in the physical world.

In the Humanities and Social Sciences category, Gautam Bhatia, Adjunct Professor at Jindal Global Law School and Green Fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney was chosen.

The ISF chose Isha Jain, Associate Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco for her discoveries in oxygen biology, which showed that tissue damage in some mitochondrial diseases arises from excess oxygen rather than energy failure, and for turning fundamental biochemical insights into new therapeutic strategies, including designing a small-molecule to reduce oxygen levels and vitamin-based treatments for inherited metabolic disorders.

In Mathematical Sciences category, the award is given to Riddhipratim Basu, Associate Professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (ICTS-TIFR) in Bengaluru.

In Physical Sciences category, Manoj Kumar Joshi, an experimental physicist and Assistant Professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) has been chosen.

"The prize for each category comprises a gold medal, a citation, and a prize purse of USD 100,000 (or its equivalent in INR)," ISF said in a statement.

It further said that the laureates of Infosys Prize 2026 were selected by an international panel of jurors comprising renowned scholars and experts.

From 2024, the prize has shifted focus to honour researchers under the age of 40, emphasising the need for early recognition of exceptional talent, ISF said.

The winners of the Infosys Prize 2026 were announced by the trustees of ISF - Srinath Batni (President, Board of Trustees), K Dinesh, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Pratima Murthy, and S D Shibulal.

Narayana Murthy addressed the audience in a recorded message, the statement said.