INFOSYS PRIZE 2012 “There Are Two Kinds of Truth: the Truth That Lights the Way and the Truth That Warms the Heart
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Dr. Ashish Lele Engineering and Computer Science Prof. Sanjay Subrahmanyam Prof. Amit Chaudhuri Humanities – History Humanities – Literary Studies Prof. Satyajit Mayor Life Sciences Prof. Manjul Bhargava Dr. A. Ajayaghosh Mathematical Sciences Physical Sciences Prof. Arunava Sen Social Sciences – Economics INFOSYS SCIENCE FOUNDATION INFOSYS SCIENCE FOUNDATION Infosys Campus, Electronics City, Hosur Road, Bangalore 560 100 Tel: 91 80 2852 0261 Fax: 91 80 2852 0362 Email: [email protected] www.infosys-science-foundation.com INFOSYS PRIZE 2012 “There are two kinds of truth: The truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.” Raymond Chandler 1888 – 1959 Author Engineering and Computer Science The Infosys Prize for Engineering and Computer Science is awarded to Doctor Ashish Lele for his incisive contributions in molecular tailoring of stimuli responsive smart polymeric gels; exploring the anomalous behavior Dr. Ashish Lele of rheologically complex fluids and for building the Scientist, National Chemical Laboratories (NCL), bridge between macromolecular dynamics and polymer Pune, India processing. Ashish Lele is a Scientist at the Scope and impact of work processes, which often limits industrial National Chemical Laboratories production. (NCL), Pune, India. He The thrust of Dr. Ashish Lele’s research His pioneering research on completed his B.E. in Chemical has been the deep probing of polymeric polymer-nanoclay composites showed Engineering from the Institute material microstructures at the that the melt viscosity of these materials of Chemical Technology (ICT), molecular and mesoscopic length drops precipitously due to Mumbai (1988) and a Ph.D. in scales, and then relating these to their flow-induced orientation and breakage Chemical Engineering from the macroscopic dynamical and equilibrium of the nanoclay network. He showed how University of Delaware (1993). properties. micro composite models could be used Lele has received several His work on smart hydrogels – water to predict the macroscopic mechanical awards including the CSIR swollen, cross-linked networks of properties of the polymer-nanoclay Young Scientist Award polymers that respond to stimuli such composites. (1996), the Indian National as temperature and electrical field, and undergo volume phase transitions Science Academy Young Citation by the jury Scientist Award (1998), and – demonstrated for the first time, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar macroscopic self-organization of these Dr. Ashish Lele has made many novel Prize in Engineering Science polymers. It revealed the process of how and impactful contributions to polymer (2006). He is a Fellow of the the hydrogel cylinder spontaneously science and engineering. These include Indian National Academy of self-organized into a coconut-like molecular tailoring of stimuli responsive Engineering and of the Indian structure, which could be reversed. smart hydrogels, new insights into Academy of Science. He showed that the metal ion the anomalous rheological behavior complexion with specific functional of complex fluids and the coupling of He was a Visiting Professor groups attached to polymer chains could macromolecular dynamics and polymer at the I.S.I.T.V., Toulon, lead to the design of gels that mimic the processing. France (1996) and worked behavior of the spontaneous healing of He has many firsts to his credit. as a Research Associate at wounds in animals. the University of Cambridge The experimental discovery of novel (2001). He is the President of He provided the basis of molecular macroscopic self-organization in stimuli the Indian Society of Rheology tailoring of such hydrogels, responsive gels and the discovery and a member of the editorial demonstrating how subtle changes in of self-healing gels were important board of its prestigious journal, weak intermolecular forces can induce breakthroughs. His theoretical firsts Rheologica Acta. substantial changes in the volume phase include, laying the foundations of a mean transitions. His work has a profound field theoretical framework of specific significance on the use of hydrogels as weak molecular interactions in gels; sensors, soft actuators, etc. elucidation of the unusual amoeba-like dynamics of ring polymers; new insights His coarse-grained rigorous molecular into the role of convective constrained model described the coupling between release of polymer chains in causing the dynamics of the chains that are the industrially important stick-slip tethered to the surface wall with the instability in flows of polymer melts, entangled bulk chains that flow past and the exploration of the critical role of the wall. It unearthed the crucial role flow-induced orientation of nanoclays. of a dynamic process, the ‘convective constrained release,’ in causing the stick-slip instability in extrusion Infosys Prize 2012 Humanities – History The Infosys Prize for Humanities – History, is awarded to Professor Sanjay Subrahmanyam, an outstanding Prof. Sanjay Subrahmanyam scholar of early-modern (1500-1800) South Asian history. Distinguished Professor of History, He has developed a new genre of ‘connected history,’ Navin and Pratima Doshi Endowed Chair involving persons, products, and social and political in Pre-Modern Indian History, University of California, Los Angeles, processes stretching, on two sides of India, from Melaka USA in the East to Portugal in the West. Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Scope and impact of work how foreigners, despite their possible Distinguished Professor of prejudices and misgivings, could move History, and Navin and Pratima Prof. Sanjay Subrahmanyam has had a through unfamiliar cultures with skill Doshi Endowed Chair in transformative influence in the field of and success. Pre-Modern Indian History at early modern history for South Asia, and for much of the rest of the world. the University of California, Citation by the jury Los Angeles, USA (since 2004). His geographical reach extends from He got his M.A. in Economics South Asia to Southeast Asia, Prof. Sanjay Subrahmanyam is an (1982) from the University of West Asia, Europe and Latin America. outstanding scholar of early-modern Delhi and his Ph.D. (1987) from He has contributed to a wide array of (1500-1800) South Asian history. the Delhi School of Economics historical sub-disciplines (economic, His ground-breaking work recaptures the (DSE). social, intellectual and literary history). real dynamism that marked an epoch, He has published or co-published 25 which had often been wrongly viewed by His past appointments include books and about 200 articles, which earlier historians as ‘stagnant.’ Chair in Indian History and have been influential. He writes in He brings to his research work Culture at the University of three languages, lectures in five, and his unparalleled command of archives Oxford (2002-04), Directeur research material comes from nearly a in Europe, the Middle East, and India, d’études at the Ecole des dozen languages. Hautes Etudes en Sciences along with vast readings of primary Sociales (1995-2002) and An important contribution of and secondary texts in nearly a dozen Professor of Economic History Subrahmanyam was to demonstrate the languages. need to transcend the walls that have (1993-95) at DSE. He was the Subrahmanyam’s numerous books separately incarcerated histories of Asian founding Director of UCLA’s and articles have been translated into nations for the past century. In his two- Center for India and South Asia Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, volume book, Explorations in Connected (2005-2011). Chinese and Japanese. The impact of his History, Subrahmanyan demonstrates, far-reaching work has been felt across He was elected to the American through an array of striking examples, disciplines. Academy of Arts and Sciences how thinking beyond boundaries in 2009. Bryn Mawr College in can uncover the linkages that have Pennsylvania selected him as historically joined the countries of the 2009 Mary Flexner Lecturer. Eurasia together. He is the Joint Managing Editor of the Indian Economic and Social In Penumbral Visions, he explores the History Review and is on the world of power of early modern South editorial board of the Cambridge Asia, showing how political structures History of the World. and cultures were transformed. He has also used the individual life as a window onto major movements of history. His Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama deploys powerful archival research to separate myth from legend and offer a new, global view of European expansion. Subrahmanyam’s recent publication, Three Ways of Being Alien, demonstrates Infosys Prize 2012 Humanities – Literary Studies The Infosys Prize for Humanities – Literary Studies is awarded to Professor Amit Chaudhuri for his imaginative and illuminating writings in literary criticism that reflect a complex literary sensibility, and great theoretical Prof. Amit Chaudhuri mastery, along with a probing sense of detail. This Prize Author and Professor of Contemporary Literature, University of East Anglia, recognizes and celebrates the intellectual reach and a Norwich, UK deep humanity in his extraordinary writings.