54 scholars win Faculty Research Awards at Careers360’s IRIS 2026

Fifty-four research scholars from across public and private institutions were recognised for contributing to and advancing knowledge in their disciplines at the third edition of Careers360’s Faculty Research Awards. Held on October 1 in New Delhi, as part of Careers360’s first India Research and Impact Summit 2026, the awards place academics working in Indian institutions of higher education in the front and centre of the conversation on research.

Prof. Abhay Karandikar, member NITI Aayog, former Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), and former director of IIT Kanpur, delivered the keynote address for IRIS 2026. Sribharat Mathukumilli, Member of Par liament (Lok Sabha) and President, GITAM Deemed to-be University delivered the Impact Keynote.

The 54 research scholars who won the Faculty Research Awards work in 27 academic domains. For 26 domains, an equal number of researchers from public and private institutions were selected. In one domain, both awardees are from public institutions. The full list of awardees, the disciplines they work in and the institutions they come from is attached.

The winners were selected on the basis of their publications, citations and H-index as recorded in highly-regarded academic research indices. The awardees come from public and private institutions across India, including IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, University of Hyderabad, ICAR, TISS Mumbai, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), SRM I nstitute of Science and Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, UPES Dehradun and beyond.

IRIS 2026 also saw a series of six of panel discussions on research – what’s holding it back; industry-academia research; how India measures research on policy, business and social impact; whether universities reward research impact or output; how PhD students see India’s research environment and research as a factor in ranking and link ing frameworks. The full list of speakers is given below.

Maheshwer Peri, Founder and Chairman, Careers360 said: “At Careers360, our work has always begun with a simple question: what makes an institution truly valuable to a student and to society? For years, we have helped millions of students understand universities through admissions, courses, outcomes. But the more closely we looked at institutions, the clearer one thing became: a university cannot be judged only by how well it teaches existing knowledge. Its larger contribution is also in creating new knowledge. And yet, while institutions are cel ebrated through rankings, accreditation and reputation, the individual researcher behind that knowledge often remains invisible. That is where the idea of IRIS came from. Today, we will recognise 54 outstanding researchers — one from a public institution and one from a private institution across 27 subject domains. This is an attempt to put the researcher at the centre of the conversation.

Delivering the keynote address, Prof. Abhay Karandikar said: “ India is severely lacking in our academia, uni versities and also in the industry ecosystem in terms of taking the basic research and the research which has been published into translatable technologies, commercialisation and so on. Research is concentrated only in a few uni versities. …We have very weak industry-academia linkages and primarily that is arising from industry not spending enough on research…. The government has made institutional and sectoral interventions. We are hoping that with these interventions, we can create an ecosystem in which academia will have a much stronger connection with the industry ecosystem and will focus on doing research which is addressing some of the challenges for our country and of course, in turn, they will address the global challenges as well.”

Sribharat Mathukumilli, Member of Parliament - Lok Sabha, and President, GITAM, delivering the impact note, said, “We need to become an exceptional knowledge-based institution, advancing on a culture of honesty and compassion. Capacity for academic research in India is very low, and that’s something if we don’t change, I think our impact on research and knowledge will be very low.”

Panel Discussions and Participants YouTube Link: https://youtube.com/live/auNzYRFI6Ck?feature=share

What Is Holding Back Indian Research: Funding, Faculty, Institutions or Incentives?

• Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder & Chairperson, Board of Trustees, Ashoka University
• Sribharat Mathukumilli, MP Lok Sabha and President, GITAM Deemed to be University
• Dr. Ananya Mukherjee, Vice-Chancellor, Shiv Nadar IOE
• Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Group Vice-Chancellor, BITS Pilani
• Prof. GD Yadav (Padma Shri) and Emeritus Professor of Eminence, ICT Mumbai
• Prof. Pankaj Chandra, Vice-Chancellor, Ahmedabad University

Industry-Academia Research: Partnership Problem or Trust Deficit?

• Prof. Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Vice-Chancellor, Ashoka University
• C Srinivasa Raju, Indian Entrepreneur, Founder Sri City
• Prateek Maheshwari, Co-Founder PW (Physics Wallah)

From Labs to Legislation: How should India measure research on Policy, Business and Social

Impact?

• Prof. C. Raj Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University
• Prof. Bharat Bhasker, Director, IIM Ahmedabad
• Prof. Dishan Kamdar, Vice-Chancellor, FLAME University
• Dr. Sekar Viswanathan, Vice-President, Vellore Institute of Technology
• Dr. A. Vinay Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, IFHE Hyderabad

Are Indian Universities Rewarding Research Impact or Research Output?

• Prof. Rudra Pratap, Vice-Chancellor, Plaksha University
• Dr. B. Suresh, Pro-Chancellor, JSS University, Noida
• Prof. Ch. Satish Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, SRM University AP
• Er. Onkar Bagaria, CEO, VGU Jaipur
• Dr. Suresh Ramanatham, CEO, IMI

Fresh Blood: How Phd students and research fellows see India’s research environment

• Prof. Sandeep Kumar Shukla, Director IIIT Hyderabad
• Dr. Sandeep Sancheti, VP, Academic Relations, Elsevier
• Sujatha Kshirsagar, President & CBO, Career Launcher
• Dr. Dhruv Galgotia, CEO, Galgotias University
• Dr. Asit K Barma, Director, BIM Trichy

Research and Rankings: How fair are research parameters in ranking and listing frameworks?

• Satya Narayanan R, Chairman & Executive Director, CL Educate Ltd.
• Hemant Sahal, Founder & CEO, Digii
• Dr. Bipin Nair, Registrar, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
• Achal Agrawal, Founder, India Research Watch (IRW)
• Dr. B. Priestly Shan, Vice-Chancellor, Alliance University

Outstanding Faculty Award – List of Winners:

Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Public: Ravi Pandiselvam, ICAR - Indian Agricultural Research Institute

Private: Penna Suprasanna, Amity University

Arts and Humanities

Public: Pramod K. Nayar, University of Hyderabad

Private: Samta P. Pandya, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Public: Md Imtiyaz Hassan, Jamia Millia Islamia

Private: Thottethodi Subrahmanya Keshava Prasad, NITTE Deemed-to-be University

Business, Management and Accounting

Public: Sheshadri Chatterjee, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Private: Sachin Kumar Mangla, FORE School of Management, New Delhi

Chemical Engineering

Public: Asim Bhaumik, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata

Private: P Raizada, Shoolini University, Solan

Chemistry

Public: Debabrata Maiti, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Private: Rangasamy Jayakumar, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi

Computer Science

Public: Ashok Kumar Das, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad

Private: Neeraj Kumar, Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology

Decision Sciences

Public: Manoj Kumar Tiwari, Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai

Private: Raman Ramakrishnan, Symbiosis International (Deemed University)

Dentistry

Public: Akhilanand Chaurasia, King George’s Medical University

Private: Sachin Chakradhar Sarode, Dr.D.Y. Patil Dental College & Hospital

Earth and Planetary Sciences

Public: Shantanu Desai, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad

Private: K. G. Arun, Chennai Mathematical Institute

Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Public: Aviral Kumar Tiwari, Indian Institute of Management Bodh Gaya

Private: Vishal Dagar, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon

Energy

Public: Vineet Veer Tyagi, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra

Private: T. Maiyalagan, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur

Engineering

Public: Bijaya Ketan Panigrahi, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Private: T. Sathish, Saveetha School of Engineering, Chennai

Environmental Science

Public: J Rajesh Banu, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur

Private: Sunita J. Varjani, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun

Health Professions

Public: Marimuthu Govindarajan, Annamalai University, Chidambaram

Private: Karuppasamy Govindasamy, Symbiosis School of Sports Sciences, Pune

Immunology and Microbiology

Public: Pratyoosh Shukla, Banaras Hindu University

Private: Veeraraghavan Balaji, Christian Medical College, Vellore

Materials Science

Public: Nagabhushana, H, Tumkur University

Private: S. C. Sharma, JAIN Deemed-to-be University

Mathematics

Public: Rathinasamy Sakthivel, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore

Private: Indranil Biswas, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University

Medicine

Public: Nikhil Tandon, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

Private: Mahesh Padkuduru A, JSS Academy of Higher Education & Research, Mysuru

Multidisciplinary

Public: Nidhan K. Biswas, National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani

Private: Mohammad Javed Ansari, Hindu College, Moradabad

Neuroscience

Public: Manjari Tripathi, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

Private: Atul H. Goel, KJ Somaiya Medical College and Research Centre

Nursing

Public: Suresh K Sharma, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur

Private: Judith Angelitta Noronha, Manipal Academy of Higher Education

Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics

Public: Vandana Bharat Patravale, Institute of Chemical Technology

Private: Dharmarajan Sriram, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Hyderabad

Physics and Astronomy

Public: Sanjay Kumar Swain, National Institute of Science Education and Research

Private: Bibhuti Parida, Amity University, Noida

Psychology

Public: Sujita Kumar Kar, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow

Private: T. S. Sathyanarayana Rao, JSS Medical College & Hospital, Mysuru

Social Sciences

Public: Sanjay Kumar Mohanty, International Institute for Population Sciences , Mumbai

Private: Prema P. Nedungadi, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus, Kollam

Veterinary Sciences

Public: Veerasamy Sejian, ICAR–National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology

Private: Kumaragurubaran Karthik, Tamil Nadu Veterinary Animal Sciences University