Historian Jahnavi Phalkey was announced as the winner of the Infosys Prize 2023 in Humanities on Wednesday. Phalkey was awarded for her "brilliant and granular insights into the individual, institutional, and material histories of scientific research in modern India".
Renowned as a historian of science and technology, she is the founding director of Science Gallery Bengaluru and Sir Asutosh Mukherjee, a visiting professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies. She was previously at King's College London.
"Far too many people have made me who I am, and made my research what it is," Jahnavi Phalkey said.
Karuna Mantena was awarded the Infosys Prize 2023 in Social Sciences for her research on "the theory of imperial rule, and the claim that this late imperial ideology became one of the important factors in the emergence of modern social theory".
Professor Sachchida Nand Tripathi, from IIT, Kanpur, was given the Infosys Prize 2023 for "pioneering a large-scale sensor-based air quality network, mobile laboratories, and AI+ML-driven data analysis".
Professor Mukund Thattai from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, was declared the winner of the Infosys Prize 2023 in Physical Sciences for his contributions to evolutionary cell biology.
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The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) selects the winners of the Infosys Prize in six categories: engineering and computer science, humanities, life sciences, mathematical sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences. Each category's prize comprises a gold medal, a citation, and a prize purse of $100,000 (or its equivalent in rupees).
The Infosys Prize focuses on the recipients' achievements and awards them for their contributions to science and research that impact India.
The Infosys Prize 2022 in Humanities was awarded to Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice Chancellor of National Law School of India University in Bengaluru. He was awarded for his understanding of the Indian Constitution. Professor Akeel Bilgrami from Columbia University was awarded the Infosys Prize 2021 in Humanities.
The panel of jurors comprise world-renowned scholars and experts."The awardees must remember that this is not a lifetime achievement prize. This prize is to enthuse them to do bigger things in their field and to receive bigger honors," said Narayana Murthy, trustee, Infosys Science Foundation.