Manindra Agrawal Elected Fellow of the Royal Society

Manindra Agrawal, Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 20 May 2026. The Royal Society is a scientific academy in the United Kingdom and one of the oldest learned societies in the world, founded in 1660.

Royal Society Fellowship

Fellowship of the Royal Society is denoted by the post-nominal letters FRS. The society elects fellows for substantial contributions to science, mathematics, engineering, and medicine.

AKS Primality Test

Agrawal received recognition for work in theoretical computer science, including the AKS primality test. He developed the test in 2002 with Neeraj Kayal and Nitin Saxena at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. The AKS primality test is the first unconditional deterministic polynomial-time algorithm for checking whether a number is prime. The algorithm is named after the surnames of Agrawal, Kayal, and Saxena.

Academic Profile

Manindra Agrawal was born on 20 May 1966 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. He earned a B.Tech degree in Computer Science and Engineering in 1986 and a PhD in the same subject in 1991 from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He became Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in April 2024. He has also served as a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences, all three Indian Science Academies, and as a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences.

Important Facts for Exams

• The Royal Society was founded in 1660 in London.
• The AKS primality test was published in 2002 by Manindra Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal, and Nitin Saxena.
• The AKS algorithm is a deterministic primality test with polynomial-time complexity.
• Manindra Agrawal received the Padma Shri in 2013 and the Gödel Prize in 2006.

Other Awards and Memberships

Agrawal received the Fulkerson Prize in 2006 and the first Infosys Prize for Mathematics in 2008. He is also a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences, India.