Six, including quantum and climate change researchers, win Infosys Prize

Manoj Kumar Joshi of Singapore University of Technology and Design got Physical Sciences award for work using trapped ions to build programmable quantum machines capable of simulating complex quantum phenomena. (Image generated using AI)

The Infosys Science Foundation (ISF) on Thursday announced the six winners of the Infosys Prize 2026, recognising scholars in fields ranging from constitutional law, climate change and economics to quantum physics.

Constitutional law scholar Gautam Bhatia won in the Humanities and Social Sciences category for legal scholarship that, the ISF said, brings “law into conversation with sociology, political theory and moral philosophy.” Bhatia, an adjunct professor at Jindal Global Law School and a Green Fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, was recognised for a prolific body of writing, including five books.

The other winners include Karthik Sastry, associate professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, for his contributions to the study of climate change, technological innovation and business-cycle fluctuations. Swarun Kumar, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, won in Engineering and Computer Science. In Life Sciences, Isha Jain, associate investigator at Gladstone Institutes and assistant professor of Biochemistry at University of California, San Francisco, was honoured for discoveries in oxygen biology.

Riddhipratim Basu, associate professor at International Centre for Theoretical Sciences of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru, won in Mathematical Sciences for contributions to probability theory and statistical physics. Manoj Kumar Joshi of Singapore University of Technology and Design got Physical Sciences award for work using trapped ions to build programmable quantum machines capable of simulating complex quantum phenomena.