Six researchers win Infosys Prize 2026 across six categories
The awards recognise scholars under 40 for contributions to fields including quantum physics, climate change and constitutional law.
The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) announced six winners of the Infosys Prize 2026 on Thursday, according to reports from The Indian Express, ThePrint and The Times of India. The 18th edition of the prizes recognises researchers under the age of 40 for their work in various scientific and scholarly disciplines.
Each laureate receives a gold medal, a citation and a prize purse of $1,00,000. The foundation, which instituted the awards in 2009, shifted its focus to researchers below 40 starting in 2024 to provide early recognition of talent.
In the Humanities and Social Sciences category, Gautam Bhatia, an adjunct professor at Jindal Global Law School and a Green Fellow at the University of New South Wales, was recognised for his legal scholarship. Karthik Sastry, an associate professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, won the Economics prize for his research on business-cycle fluctuations, technological innovation and climate change.
Swarun Kumar, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, won for Engineering and Computer Science. In Life Sciences, Isha Jain, an associate investigator at Gladstone Institutes and assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco, was honoured for her discoveries regarding oxygen biology.
Riddhipratim Basu, an associate professor at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Bengaluru, won for Mathematical Sciences. Manoj Kumar Joshi, an assistant professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design, received the Physical Sciences award for his work using trapped ions to create programmable quantum machines.
Infosys Founder Narayan Murthy stated during the ceremony that the prize was instituted to honour researchers who serve as role models for young people.