Sankar Kumar Pal (born 1950) is a computer scientist and president (& former director) of the

Indian Statistical Institute Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is a higher education and research institute which is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the 1959 act of the Indian parliament. It grew out of the Statistical Laboratory set up by Prasanta C ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. He is a computer scientist with an international reputation on pattern recognition,

image processing An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

fuzzy neural network In the field of artificial intelligence, neuro-fuzzy refers to combinations of artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. Overview Neuro-fuzzy hybridization results in a hybrid intelligent system that these two techniques by combining the human- ...

soft computing Soft computing is a set of algorithms, including neural networks, fuzzy logic, and evolutionary algorithms. These algorithms are tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty, partial truth and approximation. It is contrasted with hard computing: al ...

, and machine intelligence. He founded the Machine Intelligence Unit in 1993, and the Center for Soft Computing Research: A National Facility (the first of its kind in the country) in 2004, both at the ISI. He is the founder president of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Kolkata Chapter. He is a recipient of S.S. Bhatnagar Prize in 1990. He was awarded

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

in Science and Engineering on 5 April 2013 by the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

Pranab Mukherjee Dr. Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 193531 August 2020) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the India ...

in recognition of his work in machine intelligence.

Education and career

SK Pal studied at the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

for his BSc in physics (1969), and BTech (1972) and MTech (1974) in

radio physics Radiophysics (also modern writing "radio physics") is a branch of physics focused on the theoretical and experimental study of certain kinds of radiation, its emission, propagation and interaction with matter. The term is used in the following maj ...

and

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

. He received a

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

and

from the Rajabazar Science College campus of University of Calcutta in 1979 as a student of

, and another

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

along with Diploma of the Imperial College from

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, in 1982. He worked at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

from 1986 to 1987 as Fulbright Fellow,

NASA Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late U ...

from 1990 to 1992 and in 1994 as US NAS-NRC Senior Research Associate, distinguished visitor of IEEE Computer Society (USA) for Asia-Pacific Region in 1997, and

US Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in 2004 as a visiting scientist. Besides, he held several visiting positions in Australia, Poland, Italy, and Hong Kong universities as IEEE Distinguished Visitor. He joined the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, as the CSIR Senior Research Fellow in 1975, and eventually entered into full faculty in 1987, as professor. He then became distinguished scientist in 1998, director in 2005, and president in 2022. He was the first computer scientist as well as someone outside statistics and mathematics to become the director of ISI in its 75-year history. He is also the first ex-employee of ISI being elected to hold the honorable chair of president of ISI since its inception in 1931. His areas of

research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...

interests include fuzzy sets and uncertainty analysis,

artificial neural network Artificial neural networks (ANNs), usually simply called neural networks (NNs) or neural nets, are computing systems inspired by the biological neural networks that constitute animal brains. An ANN is based on a collection of connected unit ...

s for machine intelligence, pattern recognition,

, data mining, granular computing,

genetic algorithm In computer science and operations research, a genetic algorithm (GA) is a metaheuristic inspired by the process of natural selection that belongs to the larger class of evolutionary algorithms (EA). Genetic algorithms are commonly used to gene ...

rough set In computer science, a rough set, first described by Polish computer scientist Zdzisław I. Pawlak, is a formal approximation of a crisp set (i.e., conventional set) in terms of a pair of sets which give the ''lower'' and the ''upper'' approximati ...

s, and

with applications such as in bioinformatics, video analytics, online social network anlysis, and cognitive mind development. He has pioneered hybrid intelligent systems like neuro fuzzy and rough fuzzy hybridization. Prof. Pal is widely recognized across the world for his pioneering and extraordinary contributions in Machine Intelligence, Fuzzy Logic, Soft Computing and Pattern Recognition. This has made India a leader in these disciplines in international scenario. He is a co-author of twenty one books and about five hundred and fifty research publications. He has served/serving as editor in most of the well-known scientific journals in computer science and engineering (~25 international journals). He visited more than forty countries as a Keynote/ Invited speaker or academic visitor. He has co-authored with researchers from 48 foreign and 16 Indian institutes. SK Pal is the scientist who introduced the Soft Computing concept and research in India. He has graduated officially 22 PhD students, so far, in India and abroad. They are all well placed in academia and industry. Many of whom are internationally known leading scientists with recognitions like Fellows of IEEE, TWAS, IFSA, INSA, INAE, J.C. Bose National Fellow, Padma Shri, S.S. Bhatnagar awardee, P.C. Mahalanobis National Award of the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI), Govt. of India, and Vice-President of Multinational IT Company. According to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

, as of May 2023 Pal's work had been cited 35,000+ times. Besides his academic and research contributions, he has instituted for societal benefit - i) Two Merit-cum-Means Scholarships in 2013 for supporting two economically backward students of Classes IX and X every year in his alma-mater, Ariadaha Kalachand High School, Kolkata 700057, India. This facilitates them to complete their secondary school education. ii) A Gold Medal Award at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in 2003 for the best M.Tech.(Computer Science) dissertation to encourages and promotes research excellence. Patriotism: NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA, wanted to offer him a "Green card" in 1991 requesting to stay permanently in the USA when he was working there as a National Research Council (US National Academy of Science) Guest Investigator (Resident Research Associate). But he turned down the offer and returned back to India to serve his country for ever.

Awards and recognition

Pal is the recipient of numerous awards including the 1990 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (which is the most coveted award in science in India),

award in 2013 (which is the fourth highest civilian award in India), the 1999 G.D. Birla Award (which is given to only one considering all branches of science – basic, applied, medical etc.), 1998 Om Bhasin Award from the Prime Minister of India, 1993 Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, 2000 Khwarizmi International Award from the president of Iran, 2000-2001 FICCI Award, 1993 Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, 1993

NASA Tech Briefs The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is required by its charter to report to industry any new, commercially significant technologies developed in the course of their R&D. Since the early 1960s, this has been accomplished primarily t ...

Award (USA), 1994 IEEE Trans. Neural Networks Outstanding Paper Award (USA), 1995 NASA Patent Application Award (USA), 1997 IETE-R.L. Wadhwa Gold Medal, the 2001 INSA-S.H. Zaheer Medal, 2005-06 Indian Science Congress-P.C. Mahalanobis Birth Centenary Gold Medal from Prime Minister of India for Lifetime Achievement, 2007 J.C. Bose Fellowship of the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

, 2008 Vigyan Ratna Award from Science & Culture Organization, 2013 Indian National Academy of Engineering Chair Professor, 2015 INAE-S.N. Mitra Award, 2017 INSA-Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture Award, 2018 INSA Distinguished Professorial Chair, 2020 National Science Chair of the

, 2021 AICTE Distinguished Chair Professor, and 2023 Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis Memorial Lecture at 30th West Bengal State Science & Technology Congress,

Government of West Bengal The Government of West Bengal also known as the West Bengal Government, is the subnational government of the Indian state of West Bengal , created by the National Constitution as the state's legislative, executive and judicial authority. The ...

. He is an elected Fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

, the

Academy of Sciences for the Developing World The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable devel ...

(TWAS), International Association for Pattern Recognition, International Fuzzy Systems Association, International Rough Set Society, Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association, Indian National Science Academy,

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...

, Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian National Academy of Engineering. He is an elected member of the

European Academy of Sciences and Arts The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea) is a transnational and interdisciplinary network, connecting about 2,000 recommended scientists and artists worldwide, including 37 Nobel Prize laure ...

. Currently, he is the President of Indian Statistical Institute.

References

External links

Official HomepageBiography at YatedoPublications at Google Scholar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pal, Sankar K Living people 1950 births Artificial intelligence researchers Academic staff of the Indian Statistical Institute Indian computer scientists Fellow Members of the IEEE Scientists from Kolkata Bengali scientists Alumni of Imperial College London University of Calcutta alumni Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences, India Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows Fellows of the Indian National Academy of Engineering 20th-century Indian physicists Fellows of the International Association for Pattern Recognition Recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in Engineering Science Scientists from West Bengal