Two Indian-origin Cambridge Scholars Elected to Royal Society Fellowship

Two Indian origin computer scientists at the University of Cambridge have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society, joining some of the greatest minds in scientific history including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein.

Anuj Dawar, a professor of logic and algorithms at Cambridge's Department of Computer Science and Technology, earned the honor for his groundbreaking contributions to theoretical computer science, particularly his development of symmetric complexity and proofs of unconditional hardness results in combinatorial optimization. An IIT alumnus, Dawar is a fellow of Robinson College.

Srinivasan Keshav, the Robert Sansom Professor of Computer Science and a fellow of Fitzwilliam College, was recognized for four decades of work spanning computer networking, energy informatics and Earth system science. His current research applies self supervised learning to global Earth observation data to benefit ecologists, plant scientists and policymakers through the TESSERA project.

Royal Society President Sir Paul Nurse praised the 2026 cohort for exemplifying curiosity, creativity and rigorous inquiry, adding that the diversity of perspectives they bring strengthens science globally. Both Dawar and Keshav are among seven Cambridge researchers elected to the fellowship this year.