Infosys Prize

15/09/2026

What is the only human body part that cannot repair itself?

A) Skin

B) Liver

C) Tooth Enamel

D) Bone

Comment your answer below!

14/09/2026

Prof. Umesh K. Mishra, Jury Member of the Infosys Prize 2026 in Engineering and Computer Science.

Prof. Mishra is the Richard A. Auhll Dean of The Robert Mehrabian College of Engineering and the Donald W. Whittier Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Santa Barbara. His research focuses on semiconductor device physics and technology, with much of his work centered on gallium nitride (GaN) electronics.

He co-founded Nitres in 1996, the first start-up to commercialize RF GaN transistors and LEDs, and later co-founded Transphorm in 2007 to commercialize GaN transistors for power conversion. Nitres was acquired by CREE, now Wolfspeed, in 2000, while Transphorm was acquired by Renesas Electronics in 2024.

Teaching and mentorship have also been a big part of his career. He has advised 82 PhD theses to completion, with his students going on to leadership roles in academia and industry. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Prof. Mishra has also been recognized as a highly cited researcher and has received several honors for his work in GaN electronics, including the IEEE Jun-Ichi Nishizawa Medal in 2022.

With decades of work in research, education, and GaN technology, Prof. Mishra brings a rich breadth of experience to the Infosys Prize 2026 jury.

Read more about Prof. Mishra's work: https://www.infosysprize.org/jury/2026/umesh-mishra.html

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Cornell University
Lehigh University

11/09/2026

Lightning can turn sand into glass.

When a lightning bolt strikes sandy ground, its intense heat can melt and fuse the sand along the path of the strike. As the material cools rapidly, it forms a natural glass structure called a fulgurite.

These fragile, often hollow tubes can branch through the ground, almost like roots, tracing the path taken by the lightning. Some can even stretch for several feet.

So, the next time you see a lightning storm, remember: somewhere beneath the ground, a bolt may have left behind a tiny geological record of its journey.

When lightning blasts sand into glass, the result is a rare formation called a fulgurite. Discover the chemistry, the beauty, and what it tells us about power in nature.

10/09/2026

Prof. Vikram Deshpande, Jury Member of the Infosys Prize 2026 in Engineering and Computer Science.

Prof. Deshpande is Professor of Materials Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He earned his B.Tech. from IIT Bombay and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, and has also served on the faculty at UC Santa Barbara and the Technical University of Eindhoven.

His research brings together mechanics, materials engineering, theory and experiments to understand complex materials and their behavior. His work includes micro-architectured materials, crystalline materials, and soft and active materials, with applications across different length scales.

He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids. His contributions to mechanics and materials engineering have earned him several major honors, including the Rodney Hill Prize in Solid Mechanics, Prager Medal, ASME Koiter Medal, Zdeněk P. Bažant Medal and ASME Nadai Medal. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering, and an International Member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

With his expertise in materials engineering, solid mechanics and research, Prof. Deshpande brings a strong perspective to the Infosys Prize 2026 jury.

Read more about Prof. Deshpande's work: https://www.infosysprize.org/jury/2026/vikram-deshpande.html

09/09/2026

The Indian Ocean has always been more than a body of water. It has been a route for people, trade, ideas, and cultures.

Infosys Prize 2024 laureate in Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof. Mahmood Kooria, brings this history into focus in his new book, Indians in the Ocean: Cultures of Trade and Travel c. 1000–1500, published by Penguin Books.

Drawing on historical sources in multiple languages, the book looks at the Indian merchants, travelers, and communities who crossed the Indian Ocean between the 10th and 16th centuries, and the networks they built across the region.

From trade and travel to cultural exchange, Indians in the Ocean offers a closer look at India’s connections with the wider Indian Ocean world.

The University of Edinburgh



Learn more about the book:

08/09/2026

Which planet has winds faster than the speed of sound?

A) Mars

B) Neptune

C) Venus

D) Mercury

Comment your answer below.

07/09/2026

Dr. Dhananjaya Dendukuri, Jury Member of the Infosys Prize 2026 in Engineering and Computer Sciences.

As CEO and Co-Founder of Achira Labs Pvt. Ltd., Dr. Dendukuri works at the intersection of engineering, microfluidics, medical devices, and diagnostics. After completing his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with an M.A.Sc. from the University of Toronto and a B.Tech. from IIT Madras, he returned to India with a focus on developing technology for underserved markets.

At Achira Labs, his work has led to India’s first microfluidics-based platform for point-of-care immunodiagnostics and the world’s first woven-fabric-based point-of-care platform. His research and entrepreneurial work are backed by over 30 international patents, peer-reviewed publications, and government-funded projects, with applications including infectious diseases and metabolic health.

His work has earned him recognitions including the MIT Technology Review TR35 Award and the National Technology Award for New Technologies. He is also an elected Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Dendukuri back to the Infosys Prize 2026 jury in Engineering and Computer Sciences.

Read more about Dr. Dendukuri's work: https://www.infosysprize.org/jury/2026/dhananjaya-dendukuri.html

04/09/2026

What if scientists could study human brain development over years, without having to wait for years? That is what makes a recent study from Prof. Paola Arlotta’s lab at Harvard University so interesting.

Her team has kept lab-grown human brain organoids alive for more than five years, about three times longer than the previous record. The organoids continued to mature and follow key stages of human brain development. Researchers also found that older cells could “remember” the developmental steps they had already gone through and move ahead to later stages when given the right signals.

The work could give researchers a better way to study brain development and neurological diseases, test potential treatments, and understand stages of human brain biology that have been difficult to study in the lab.

Prof. Arlotta, Golub Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University, is a member of the Infosys Prize 2026 Life Sciences Jury.



Read more about this research:

In a new milestone for stem cell research, Harvard neuroscientists have set a record for keeping alive lab-grown human brain “organoids” and proven that they mimic key developmental stages seen in living people.

03/09/2026

Prof. Sunita Sarawagi, Jury Member of the Infosys Prize 2026 in Engineering and Computer Science.

Prof. Sarawagi is the Institute Chair Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay. She earned her B.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley.

Her research focuses on databases, data mining, machine learning and natural language processing, with important applications including information extraction and working with unstructured data. She has also worked with IBM Almaden Research Center, CMU and Google Research, and was the founding head of the Center for Machine Intelligence and Data Science at IIT Bombay.

A 2019 Infosys Prize laureate in Engineering and Computer Science, Prof. Sarawagi is also an ACM Fellow and a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from IIT Kharagpur. We are delighted to welcome her to the Infosys Prize 2026 jury.

Read more about Prof. Sarawagi's work: https://www.infosysprize.org/jury/2026/sunita-sarawagi.html

02/09/2026

A new book features several distinguished names associated with the Infosys Prize.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑬𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒎𝒚: 𝑵𝒂𝒗𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝑮𝒍𝒐𝒃𝒂𝒍 𝑻𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕, edited by 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟. 𝐊𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐤 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐮, 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟. 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐝𝐞 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐚𝐢, 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟. 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟. 𝐍𝐢𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐫 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐡, looks at how India’s economy has changed since liberalization and the questions it now faces, from the impact of AI and climate change to unemployment among young people, inequality, and a shifting global economy. It asks whether India can turn its large young population, technological progress, and growing role in the world into better jobs and wider economic opportunity.

The book opens with a chapter by 𝐍. 𝐑. 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐲, Founder of Infosys and Trustee of the Infosys Science Foundation.

Prof. Basu is the Jury Chair for Economics for the Infosys Prize, while the other co-editors have also served on the Prize’s jury in previous years.

Congratulations to the editors and contributors on the publication of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘌𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘺.

Cornell University

India stands at a crossroads. With a population of 1.4 billion, the world’s fifth-largest economy, and a geopolitical moment that creates the poten...