Six early-career researchers have won the Infosys Prize 2026, announced by the Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) on Thursday, November 12, honouring work that ranges from climate economics and low-power wireless networks to oxygen biology and quantum simulation.

Source: Infosys Science Foundation

The prize was awarded in six categories — Economics, Engineering and Computer Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematical Sciences and Physical Sciences. Each laureate receives a gold medal, a citation and a prize purse of US$100,000 or its equivalent in rupees.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

The six laureates

The Economics prize went to Karthik Sastry, Associate Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, for pioneering contributions to the study of climate change, technological innovation and business-cycle fluctuations. The Engineering and Computer Science prize went to Swarun Kumar, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, for advances in low-power wireless networks, sensing and control.

Legal scholar Gautam Bhatia, Adjunct Professor at Jindal Global Law School and Green Fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, won the Humanities and Social Sciences prize for his contributions to constitutional law and legal scholarship. Isha Jain, Associate Investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, won the Life Sciences prize for pioneering discoveries in oxygen biology and new therapeutic strategies.

Source: Live Law

The Mathematical Sciences prize went to Riddhipratim Basu, Associate Professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (ICTS-TIFR) in Bengaluru, for contributions to probability theory and statistical physics. Manoj Kumar Joshi, an experimental physicist and Assistant Professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, won the Physical Sciences prize for experimental advances in quantum simulation using trapped ions.

The laureates were selected by international juries of scholars and experts for each category, and the winners were announced by ISF trustees including Srinath Batni, President of the Board of Trustees, K. Dinesh, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Pratima Murthy and S. D. Shibulal, the foundation said.

Source: Research Matters

Instituted in 2009, the Infosys Prize recognises outstanding achievements in research and scholarship. Since 2024 the prize has focused on researchers below the age of 40, a shift the foundation says is meant to encourage and reward exceptional young talent working in and connected to India.