On January 9, 2012; Infosys science foundation awarded the Infosys Awards to the six eminent Indian scientists in their respective categories for the year 2011. I extend my heartiest congratulations to the winners. The jury chairs for year 2011 were the same as of year 2010 except for the Engineering and Computer Science Category. In Engineering and Computer Science category, Prof. Suresh Subra was replaced by Prof. Pradeep K. Khosla because Prof. Suresh was appointed as the director of National Science Foundation, USA. Prof. Khosla is the dean of college of Engineering and the Philp and Mar-sha Dowd University Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
The award ceremony was held at Leela palace, Bangalore. Former President, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was the chief guest. He honored the each recipient with a cash prize of 50 Lakhs, a 24-karat gold medallion and a citation showing a body laureate work. During his speech, he stressed on encouraging productive academic pursuits that would boost the confidence of researchers in physical, biological and social sciences and related fields. The laureates of 2011 awards are:
Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb (Engineering and Computer Science Category): In computer Science and Engineering category, the prize was awarded to Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb for his fundamental contribution to the emerging field of Evolutionary Muti-objective optimization and for his ideas on optimization and computing principle to devise the efficient algorithms that are fast and scalable.
Prof. Deb did his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in 1985. Before joining University of Alabama for PhD studies in 1987, he served the Engineers India limited from 1985 to 1987. He finished his PhD form University of Alabama in 1991. After returning from USA in 1993, He joined as an Assistant Professor at IIT, Kanpur. Since then, he is working there. Presently, he is a Gurmukh and Veena Mehta Endowed Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, IIT, Kanpur and the Director of the Kanpur Genetic Algorithms Laboratory (KanGAL) which he established in 1997. He is an author of more than 275 journal articles, two text booksand 17 edited books. He conferred with many prestigious awards and fellowships. Some of them are: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award (2005), Thomson Citation Laureate Award, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research award, Humboldt Fellowship from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. He is a fellow of Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), and International Society of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (ISGEC).
Dr. Imran Siddiqi (Life Sciences): Dr. Imran Siddiqi was awarded the prize in life sciences category for his breakthrough contributions to the basic understanding of clonal seed formations in the plant which could revolutionize the agriculture sector. Dr. Siddiqi is a scientist and group leader at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) – CSIR, Hyderabad.
Dr. Siddiqi did his MSc from IIT, Bombay in 1981 and PhD from University of Oregon, USA in 1989. Before joining CCMB in 1992, he did postdoctoral work at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His research is mainly focused on the developmental biology of plant reproduction with an emphasis on the control of female meiosis and gametogenesis.
Prof. Kannan Soundararajan (Mathematical Sciences): In mathematics category, the prize was awarded to Prof. Kannan Soundararajan for his work in number theory and development of new techniques to study the critical values of general zeta function to prove the quantum unique ergodicity conjecture for classical holomorphic forms.
Prof. Soundarajan did his undergraduate studies from University of Michigan, USA in 1995. He joined Princeton University for PhD studies in 1995. During his PhD, he was a fellow of prestigious Sloan Fellowship. After PhD, he served to various places including Princeton University. In 2006, he moved to Stanford University where, currently, he is working as professor of mathematics and the Director of Mathematics Research Center, Stanford. He got the Salem Prize in 2003, Sastra Ramanujan Prize shared with Manjul Bhargava in 2005.
Prof. Sriram Rajagopal Ramaswamy (Physical Sciences): In Physical Science category, the award was given to Prof. Sriram Rajagopal Ramaswamy for his work in the field of active matters that enables a detailed exploration into several aspects of the collective behavior of living systems as interacting mechanical entities with distributed input and dissipation of energy.
Prof. Ramaswamy did his BS from University of Maryland in 1977, then, he went to University of Chicago and got his PhD in 1983. After finishing postdoctoral studies from University of Pennsylvania, he joined at Department of Physics at Indian Institute of Science in 1986. He held numerous number of positions throughout his career.
Prof. Raghu G. Rajan (Social Sciences - Economics): Prof. Raghu G. Rajan won the award in the social science – economics category for his work in analyzing the contribution of financial development on economic growth as well as the potential harmful effects of dysfunctional incentives that lead to excessive risk-taking. Prof. Rajan presented the convincing evidence of the possibility of global financial crisis (In 2005, he was quite vocal about the issue) well before the actual crisis occurred on 2008-09.
Prof. Rajan did his UG in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Delhi, India in 1985. After completing from there, he joined Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India for MBA. Then, he moved to MIT, USA for doctoral studies in 1987. After finishing from MIT in 1991, he joined as an assistant professor at University of Chicago, US. Presently, he is a professor there. Since 2008, he is Economic advisor to Prime Minister of India (Honorary). He also served as the chairman of High Level Committee on Financial Sector Reforms, India in the year 2007-2008. He held numerous numbers of academic positions throughout his career. He also won various awards and honors throughout his career. Some of them are: Treffstz Prize for outstanding academic achievement, Western Finance Association (1991); Inaugural Fisher Black Prize awarded by the American Finance Association (2003); Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009); Bernhard Harms Prize awarded by the Kiel Institute for International Economics (2010); Global Indian of the Year Award, NASSCOM (2011).
Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta (Social Sciences – Political Science and International): The Infosys prize in Social Science – Political and international was won by Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta for his work on political philosophy and social theory and also for his acute analysis of India’s politics and public policies.
Dr. Mehta did B.A. from St John's College, Oxford in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and a Ph.D in Politics from Princeton University. He is a recipient of the Malcun S. Adishehshiah award (2010). He was Member-Convenor of the Prime Minister of India’s National Knowledge Commission; Member of the Supreme Court appointed committee on elections in Indian Universities. Presently, he is president of Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, India.
Along with prize distribution, Infosys Science Foundation made the announcement of including humanities as the sixth category for prizes of year 2012.
Note: I took all the information from Internet. Please let me know if found any thing wrong specially about the work and/or achievements of these eminent scientists
The award ceremony was held at Leela palace, Bangalore. Former President, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was the chief guest. He honored the each recipient with a cash prize of 50 Lakhs, a 24-karat gold medallion and a citation showing a body laureate work. During his speech, he stressed on encouraging productive academic pursuits that would boost the confidence of researchers in physical, biological and social sciences and related fields. The laureates of 2011 awards are:
Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb (Engineering and Computer Science Category): In computer Science and Engineering category, the prize was awarded to Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb for his fundamental contribution to the emerging field of Evolutionary Muti-objective optimization and for his ideas on optimization and computing principle to devise the efficient algorithms that are fast and scalable.
Prof. Deb did his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in 1985. Before joining University of Alabama for PhD studies in 1987, he served the Engineers India limited from 1985 to 1987. He finished his PhD form University of Alabama in 1991. After returning from USA in 1993, He joined as an Assistant Professor at IIT, Kanpur. Since then, he is working there. Presently, he is a Gurmukh and Veena Mehta Endowed Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering, IIT, Kanpur and the Director of the Kanpur Genetic Algorithms Laboratory (KanGAL) which he established in 1997. He is an author of more than 275 journal articles, two text booksand 17 edited books. He conferred with many prestigious awards and fellowships. Some of them are: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award (2005), Thomson Citation Laureate Award, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research award, Humboldt Fellowship from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. He is a fellow of Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), and International Society of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (ISGEC).
Dr. Imran Siddiqi (Life Sciences): Dr. Imran Siddiqi was awarded the prize in life sciences category for his breakthrough contributions to the basic understanding of clonal seed formations in the plant which could revolutionize the agriculture sector. Dr. Siddiqi is a scientist and group leader at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) – CSIR, Hyderabad.
Dr. Siddiqi did his MSc from IIT, Bombay in 1981 and PhD from University of Oregon, USA in 1989. Before joining CCMB in 1992, he did postdoctoral work at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His research is mainly focused on the developmental biology of plant reproduction with an emphasis on the control of female meiosis and gametogenesis.
Prof. Kannan Soundararajan (Mathematical Sciences): In mathematics category, the prize was awarded to Prof. Kannan Soundararajan for his work in number theory and development of new techniques to study the critical values of general zeta function to prove the quantum unique ergodicity conjecture for classical holomorphic forms.
Prof. Soundarajan did his undergraduate studies from University of Michigan, USA in 1995. He joined Princeton University for PhD studies in 1995. During his PhD, he was a fellow of prestigious Sloan Fellowship. After PhD, he served to various places including Princeton University. In 2006, he moved to Stanford University where, currently, he is working as professor of mathematics and the Director of Mathematics Research Center, Stanford. He got the Salem Prize in 2003, Sastra Ramanujan Prize shared with Manjul Bhargava in 2005.
Prof. Sriram Rajagopal Ramaswamy (Physical Sciences): In Physical Science category, the award was given to Prof. Sriram Rajagopal Ramaswamy for his work in the field of active matters that enables a detailed exploration into several aspects of the collective behavior of living systems as interacting mechanical entities with distributed input and dissipation of energy.
Prof. Ramaswamy did his BS from University of Maryland in 1977, then, he went to University of Chicago and got his PhD in 1983. After finishing postdoctoral studies from University of Pennsylvania, he joined at Department of Physics at Indian Institute of Science in 1986. He held numerous number of positions throughout his career.
Prof. Raghu G. Rajan (Social Sciences - Economics): Prof. Raghu G. Rajan won the award in the social science – economics category for his work in analyzing the contribution of financial development on economic growth as well as the potential harmful effects of dysfunctional incentives that lead to excessive risk-taking. Prof. Rajan presented the convincing evidence of the possibility of global financial crisis (In 2005, he was quite vocal about the issue) well before the actual crisis occurred on 2008-09.
Prof. Rajan did his UG in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Delhi, India in 1985. After completing from there, he joined Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India for MBA. Then, he moved to MIT, USA for doctoral studies in 1987. After finishing from MIT in 1991, he joined as an assistant professor at University of Chicago, US. Presently, he is a professor there. Since 2008, he is Economic advisor to Prime Minister of India (Honorary). He also served as the chairman of High Level Committee on Financial Sector Reforms, India in the year 2007-2008. He held numerous numbers of academic positions throughout his career. He also won various awards and honors throughout his career. Some of them are: Treffstz Prize for outstanding academic achievement, Western Finance Association (1991); Inaugural Fisher Black Prize awarded by the American Finance Association (2003); Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009); Bernhard Harms Prize awarded by the Kiel Institute for International Economics (2010); Global Indian of the Year Award, NASSCOM (2011).
Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta (Social Sciences – Political Science and International): The Infosys prize in Social Science – Political and international was won by Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta for his work on political philosophy and social theory and also for his acute analysis of India’s politics and public policies.
Dr. Mehta did B.A. from St John's College, Oxford in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and a Ph.D in Politics from Princeton University. He is a recipient of the Malcun S. Adishehshiah award (2010). He was Member-Convenor of the Prime Minister of India’s National Knowledge Commission; Member of the Supreme Court appointed committee on elections in Indian Universities. Presently, he is president of Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, India.
Along with prize distribution, Infosys Science Foundation made the announcement of including humanities as the sixth category for prizes of year 2012.
Note: I took all the information from Internet. Please let me know if found any thing wrong specially about the work and/or achievements of these eminent scientists
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