 The prize is awarded by the Infosys Foundation, whose founder in Kulkarni's brother-in-law, Narayana Murthy.Kulkarni is a member of as many as four national academies around the globe.He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, in 2001, a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2003, an honorary fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences in 2012, and a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences on 12 September 2016.