Infosys Prize 2026: Six Research Winners, Categories and $100,000 Award per Category

The news

The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) on Thursday announced the winners of the Infosys Prize 2026 in six categories — Economics, Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, and Physical Sciences. The prize for each category comprises a gold medal, a citation, and a prize purse of $100,000 (or its equivalent in Indian rupees). The laureates were selected by an international panel of jurors comprising renowned scholars and experts.

This year, 222 applications were received compared to 150 last year, ISF Trustee Kris Gopalakrishnan said. The highest number of applications were received in the Engineering and Computer Science category, and the youngest winner this year is 31 years of age. Since 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. “Recognising exceptional researchers early in their careers is particularly important, as it gives them the encouragement and opportunity to pursue bold questions, challenge established thinking and make lasting contributions to their fields,” ISF President Srinath Batni said.

The winners are: Karthik Sastry (Economics), Associate Professor at Princeton University, for contributions to climate change, technological innovation, and business cycle fluctuations; Swarun Kumar (Engineering and Computer Science), Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, for extending low-power wireless networks to perception and action; Gautam Bhatia (Humanities and Social Sciences), Adjunct Professor at Jindal Global Law School and Green Fellow at the University of New South Wales, described by the jury as an outstanding young legal scholar; Isha Jain (Life Sciences), Associate Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, for discoveries in oxygen biology; Riddhipratim Basu (Mathematical Sciences), Associate Professor at ICTS-TIFR Bengaluru, for contributions to probability theory and statistical physics; and Manoj Kumar Joshi (Physical Sciences), Assistant Professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design, for work with trapped ions and programmable quantum machines.

When was the Infosys Science Foundation established?

The Infosys Science Foundation was set up in 2009 by the Board of Infosys Technologies Limited. It is a not-for-profit trust that instituted the Infosys Prize to honor outstanding achievements in scientific research. The prize was initially awarded in five categories, with the Humanities category added later. The foundation's mission is to elevate the prestige of science and research in India and inspire young Indians to pursue a career in scientific research.

What is the Infosys Prize and who selects the winners?

The Infosys Prize is awarded by the Infosys Science Foundation across six disciplines. An international jury of scholars and experts selects the laureates each year. From 2024, the foundation shifted its focus to researchers under the age of 40 to encourage early-career talent and inspire the next generation of scholars and innovators.

What are the key research contributions of the 2026 winners?

Karthik Sastry's work provides insights into how societies adapt to climate change through technological innovations, with far-reaching policy implications. Swarun Kumar combines insights on wireless physics with novel architectures for connectivity, sensing, control, and actuation. Gautam Bhatia works across law, macro-economics, sociology, political theory, and moral philosophy. Isha Jain showed that tissue damage in some mitochondrial diseases arises from excess oxygen rather than energy failure, and designed a small-molecule to reduce oxygen levels and vitamin-based treatments for inherited metabolic disorders. Riddhipratim Basu resolved the longstanding slow-bond problem and established new large deviations asymptotics. Manoj Kumar Joshi creates programmable quantum machines using trapped ions, turning the promise of quantum simulation into experimental reality.