Kalam Presents Infosys Prizes to Six Noted Scientists

Former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam awarded six distinguished scientists with the Infosys Prize 2011. The Infosys Science Foundation 2011 Prize distribution function held at the Leela Palace in Bangalore on Monday, Jan. 9, 2012.

Kalam honored each of the winners with a prize money of Rs 50 lakh ($100,000), a 22-karat gold medallion and a citation.

The winners are Kanpur Genetic Algorithms Laboratory director Kalyanmoy Deb in engineering and computer science, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology scientist Imran Siddiqi in life sciences, Stanford University professor Kannan Soundararajan in mathematical sciences and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) physics professor Sriram Ramaswamy in physical sciences.

University of Chicago professor Raghuram G. Rajan and Centre for Policy Research chief executive Pratap Bhanu Mehta were awarded in Social Sciences (Economics and Political Science and International Relations respectively).

The noted scientists were selected by the Foundation trustees and the eminent jury panels comprising Nobel laureate Amartya Sen for Social Sciences, Shrinivas Kulkarni (physical sciences), Pradeep K. Khosla (engineering and computer science), S.R. Varadhan (mathematical sciences) and Inder Verma (life sciences).