Sankar Kumar Pal

Pal studied at the University of Calcutta, earning a BSc in physics (1969), a BTech (1972), and an MTech (1974) in radio physics and electronics.^[4] He received a PhD in radio physics and electronics from the Rajabazar Science College campus of the University of Calcutta in 1979 as a student of Indian Statistical Institute and another PhD in electrical engineering along with the Diploma of Imperial College from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London in 1982. His first PhD was in pattern recognition,^[5] while the other was in image processing.^[6]

After completing his PhD at Imperial College, London as a Commonwealth Scholar, he continued as a postdoctoral fellow from 1982 to 1983 as a UK Medical Research Council Fellow. Subsequently, Pal worked at the University of California, Berkeley and University of Maryland, College Park from 1986 to 1987 as a Fulbright Fellow. He also worked at the NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas from 1990 to 1992 and in 1994 as a US National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council Senior Resident Research Associate, and at the US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. in 2004 as a visiting scientist with US ONRIFO (Office of Naval Research International Field Office) Fellowship. He had been a Distinguished Visitor of IEEE Computer Society (USA) for Asia-Pacific Region since 1997 and held several visiting positions in Australia, Poland, Italy, France, New Zealand, Japan and Hong Kong universities. He established sustained research collaborations with many foreign universities, particularly in Europe such as the University of Warsaw, Poland (1997–2017), University of Naples, Italy (2004–2020) and INSEAD, France (2001–2013) under joint agreements between nations or institutes, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China (1999–2008).^[7][8]

Pal joined the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, as a CSIR senior research fellow in 1975, and he eventually became a professor in 1987, distinguished scientist (higher than full professor) in 1998, and later served as director from 2005 to 2010 and President from 2022 to 2026.^[9] He retired from the Indian Statistical Institute as a distinguished scientist in 2015. 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 elected to hold the chair of president of ISI since its inception in 1931.^[10][11][12]

According to his official academic profile, Pal has co-authored over 500 research publications, 21 books and 20 conference proceedings,^[13] and holds two U.S. patents. He has served, or is serving as, editor for more than 20 scientific journals in computer science and engineering.^[12]

His book, "Fuzzy Mathematical Approach to Pattern Recognition,"^[14] published by John Wiley and Sons (Halsted Press),^[15] in 1986 has been translated into Indonesian and Chinese languages.

Pal has introduced the Soft Computing concept and research in India in the mid 1990s. The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, established under its IRHPA (Intensification of Research in High Priority Areas) program, the Center for Soft Computing Research (CSCR), a National Facility with Pal as the Principal Investigator, in 2004 at ISI, Kolkata. Subsequently, CSCR became an Associate Institute of ISI in 2010.^[12]

During his directorship of ISI (2005-2010), the birthday of Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis, the founder of ISI, was declared by the Prime Minister of India on December 24, 2006, as “National Statistics Day”, to be celebrated every year over the country. Besides, ISI established the ISI-Chennai Center, approved the ISI-North Eastern Center, and replaced UGC-pay scales with higher IISc-pay scales for faculties at ISI during that period.

Pal has served as the founding president of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Kolkata Chapter.^[12] The Biennial International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (PReMI) that originated from the Machine Intelligence Unit of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata in 2005, was initiated by him.

Family

Pal was born on September 13, 1950, to Sunity Kumar Pal and Parul Bala Pal. He is the second of five siblings and has two sons, Dhiman Sankar Pal and Anshuman Sankar Pal, with his wife, Amita Pal.

Pal is the recipient of numerous awards and honours including:

• 1990 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize
• 1993 Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship
• 1993 Hari Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Research Award
• 1993 NASA Tech Briefs Award
• 1994 IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks Outstanding Paper Award
• 1995 NASA Patent Application Award
• 1997 IETE Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold Medal
• 1998 Om Prakash Bhasin Award from the Prime Minister of India
• 1999 G.D. Birla Award for scientific research from an Ex-Prime Minister of India
• 1998 Distinguished Scientist of Indian Statistical Institute
• 2000-2001 FICCI Award
• 2000 Inaugural Al Khwarizmi International Award from the President of Iran
• 2001 Syed Husain Zaheer Medal of Indian National Science Academy
• 2003 5th Distinguished Information Technology Lecture, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India, New Delhi
• 2004 1st "Bengal Science Lecture" Award under the National Program “Year of Scientific Awareness 2004”, Dept. of Science & Technology, Government of West Bengal
• 2005-06 P.C. Mahalanobis Birth Centenary Gold Medal of Indian Science Congress Association from Prime Minister of India for Lifetime Achievement
• 2006 Distinguished Alumnus of the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta
• 2007 J.C. Bose National Fellowship of the Government of India
• 2008 Vigyan Ratna Award from Science & Culture Organization
• 2010 P.C. Mahalanobis Memorial Medal from Indian Science News Association
• 2013 Chair Professor of Indian National Academy of Engineering
• 2013 Faraday Memorial Lecture award of the IEEE Hyderabad Section, Hyderabad, India
• 2013 Padma Shri award^[2]
• 2015 S.N. Mitra Award of Indian National Academy of Engineering
• 2015 Raja Ramanna Distinguished Fellowship, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India
• 2017 Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture Award of Indian National Science Academy
• 2018 Distinguished Professorial Chair of Indian National Science Academy
• 2019 Scholar-in-Residence, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur
• 2018 Emeritus Professor of Indian Statistical Institute
• 2020 National Science Chair, Government of India
• 2021 AICTE nominated AICTE Distinguished Chair Professor
• 2023 Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis Memorial Lecture Award from the Department of Science and Technology and Biotechnology, Government of West Bengal
• 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, Rahara, Kolkata
• 2024 Indian National Science Academy Distinguished Lecture Fellow
• 2025 Visting Distinguished Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore
• 2025 Doctor of Science (D.Sc.), honoris causa from Sai University, Chennai on October 24, 2025
• 2025 ANRF Prime Minister Professor, Government of India

Pal is an elected fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries (TWAS); International Association for Pattern Recognition; International Fuzzy Systems Association; International Rough Set Society; Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association; International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance; Web Intelligence Academy (founding fellow); Indian National Science Academy; The National Academy of Sciences, India; Indian Academy of Sciences; and Indian National Academy of Engineering.^[10][11] He is an elected foreign member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Currently, he is the 14th President of Indian Statistical Institute and a vice president of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA).^{[12] [16]}