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

Indian Statistical Institute The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) is a public research university headquartered in Kolkata, India with centers in New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Tezpur. It was declared an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India und ...

(ISI),

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. He is also a National Science Chair,

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

. Pal is a computer scientist with an international reputation on

pattern recognition Pattern recognition is the task of assigning a class to an observation based on patterns extracted from data. While similar, pattern recognition (PR) is not to be confused with pattern machines (PM) which may possess PR capabilities but their p ...

image processing An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be displayed through other media, including a pr ...

fuzzy neural network In the field of artificial intelligence, the designation neuro-fuzzy refers to combinations of artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. Overview Neuro-fuzzy hybridization results in a hybrid intelligent system that combines the human-like reas ...

rough fuzzy hybridization Rough fuzzy hybridization is a method of hybrid intelligent system or soft computing, where Fuzzy set theory is used for linguistic representation of patterns, leading to a ''fuzzy granulation'' of the feature space. Rough set In computer science ...

soft computing Soft computing is an umbrella term used to describe types of algorithms that produce approximate solutions to unsolvable high-level problems in computer science. Typically, traditional hard-computing algorithms heavily rely on concrete data and ma ...

, granular mining, and

machine intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

. He pioneered the development of

fuzzy set Fuzzy or Fuzzies may refer to: Music * Fuzzy (band), a 1990s Boston indie pop band * Fuzzy (composer), Danish composer Jens Vilhelm Pedersen (born 1939) * Fuzzy (album), ''Fuzzy'' (album), 1993 debut album of American rock band Grant Lee Buffalo ...

theory, and

neuro-fuzzy In the field of artificial intelligence, the designation neuro-fuzzy refers to combinations of artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic. Overview Neuro-fuzzy hybridization results in a hybrid intelligent system that combines the human-like reas ...

and rough-fuzzy computing for uncertainty modelling with demonstration in

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

knowledge-based systems A knowledge-based system (KBS) is a computer program that reasons and uses a knowledge base to solve complex problems. Knowledge-based systems were the focus of early artificial intelligence researchers in the 1980s. The term can refer to a b ...

and

data mining Data mining is the process of extracting and finding patterns in massive data sets involving methods at the intersection of machine learning, statistics, and database systems. Data mining is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and ...

. This has made him widely recognized across the world and made India a leader in these disciplines in international scenario. 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. In the process he has created many renowned scientists. He is a recipient of

Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize Shanti or Shanthi may refer to: In Sanskrit * Inner peace, a state of being mentally and spiritually at peace, with enough knowledge and understanding to keep oneself strong in the face of discord or stress * Kshanti, one of the paramitas of B ...

in 1990. He was awarded

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), 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. In ...

in Science and Engineering on 5 April 2013 by the

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) 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, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

Pranab Mukherjee Pranab Kumar Mukherjee ( ; born, 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian statesman who served as the president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a pol ...

in recognition of his work in machine intelligence.

Education and career

Sankar K. Pal studied at the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

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 Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

. He received a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

and

from the

Rajabazar Science College The University College of Science, Technology and Agriculture (formerly known as Rajabazar Science College) are two of five main campuses of the University of Calcutta (CU). The college served as the cradle of Indian sciences, where Raman won t ...

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 that 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, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, in 1982. The first PhD was in the area of

while the other was in

. After completing PhD at Imperial College, London as a

Commonwealth Scholar The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries. History The plan was originally proposed ...

, he did post-doctoral research there in the same department during 1982 to 1983 as a UK Medical Research Council Fellow. Subsequently, Dr. Pal worked at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

during 1986 to 1987 as a

Fulbright Fellow The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

; at the

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

from 1990 to 1992 & in 1994 as a

US National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

-National Research Council Senior Resident Research Associate; and at the

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. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, appl ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

in 2004 as a visiting scientist. Besides, he had been a Distinguished Visitor of

IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...

(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 Warsaw University, Poland (1997-2017), Naples University, Italy (2004-2020) and INSEAD, France (2001-2013) under joint agreements between Nations or Institutes, and Hong Kong Poly University, Hong Kong, China (1999-2008). Pal joined the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, as a CSIR Senior Research Fellow in 1975, and eventually entered into full professor position in 1987. He then became a distinguished scientist in 1998, the director in 2005, and the president in 2022. He retired as a "distinguished scientist" at the Indian Statistical Institute 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 being elected to hold the honorable chair of President of ISI since its inception in 1931. His areas of

research Research is 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 attentiveness to ...

interests include

, granular computing,

fuzzy sets Fuzzy or Fuzzies may refer to: Music * Fuzzy (band), a 1990s Boston indie pop band * Fuzzy (composer), Danish composer Jens Vilhelm Pedersen (born 1939) * Fuzzy (album), ''Fuzzy'' (album), 1993 debut album of American rock band Grant Lee Buffalo ...

and uncertainty analysis,

artificial neural networks In machine learning, a neural network (also artificial neural network or neural net, abbreviated ANN or NN) is a computational model inspired by the structure and functions of biological neural networks. A neural network consists of connected ...

genetic algorithms 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 g ...

rough sets 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'' approxim ...

, and

with applications ranging from speech recognition, medical imaging, remote sensing image analysis to bioinformatics, video analytics, online social network analysis, and cognitive mind development. He has pioneered hybrid intelligent systems like neuro fuzzy and

. The generic families of such hybrid intelligent models (networks) developed (in early 1990s) not only provide enhanced learning, understandability, knowledge mining and uncertainty management in decision-making, but also can explain the network decision in natural language. Rough-fuzzy hybridization further enables mining linguistic, categorical and relational data. The neural models, capable of accepting linguistic input, constitute the basic modules that laid the foundation of neuro-fuzzy computing and later, soft computing. Augmentation of the original definition of soft computing by introducing rough sets as its fifth constituent is another contribution of his research. This enhances greatly the computational intelligence of soft computing methodologies. All these have led to significant synergistic technological developments in modern AI (including explainable AI) and data science. His image processing research in 1970s is perhaps the first investigation (other pioneer being A. Rosenfeld, UMD, College Park, USA) that brings out the root relation between the abstract concept of fuzzy sets and image processing basic tasks like image enhancement, edge detection, primitive extraction and segmentation, and the associated uncertainties involved. Subsequently, definitions for image entropy (mid 1980s) and generalized rough-fuzzy entropy (mid 2000s) based on logarithmic and exponential gain functions are provided for modelling the uncertainty. These measures are unique. This fundamental work laid the foundation of fuzzy (soft) image processing and computer vision research. His other highly cited original research include: i) Unsupervised dimensionality reduction algorithm (in early 2000s) producing maximally independent features, that results in fast and superior performance and is suitable for

Big data Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing, data-processing application software, software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with ...

, ii) Granular computing concept and decision-making models (introduced since early 2000s) particularly when samples are indiscernible, where computations are performed using information granules rather than individual samples; thereby providing gain in both performance and computation time in mining tasks including

deep learning Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that focuses on utilizing multilayered neural networks to perform tasks such as classification, regression, and representation learning. The field takes inspiration from biological neuroscience a ...

, and iii) Z*-number, developed in mid 2010s, for machine subjectivity representation in machine-mind development by encapsulating the objective and subjective time, context, and affect components in natural language of thoughts, speech, and texts. Prof. Pal is widely recognized across the world for his pioneering and exemplary contributions in

, granular

and

. This has made India a big leader in these disciplines in international scenario. He is a co-author of 21 books, 18 conference proceedings, more than 500 research publications, and 2 US patents. He has served/serving as editor in most of the well-known scientific journals in computer science and engineering (~25 international journals). He visited about forty countries as a Keynote/ Invited speaker or academic visitor. He has co-authored with researchers from about 50 foreign and 20 Indian institutes. His book "Fuzzy Mathematical Approach to Pattern Recognition", John Wiley and Sons (Halsted Press), N.Y., 1986 had been translated into Indonesian Bahasa and Chinese Languages. According to

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

, Pal's work had been cited more than 38,700 times with h-index of 86. One of his articles based on the work done in India has about 6050 citations; which is noteworthy. SK Pal is the scientist who introduced the Soft Computing concept and research in India. For his outstanding contributions, the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, established under his leadership the Center for Soft Computing Research (CSCR), first in Asia, in 2004 at ISI, Kolkata. Subsequently, CSCR is declared by the Governing Body of ISI as an Associate Institute of ISI in 2010. Apart from acting as a strong base for nationwide research and training with linkage to industries and premier institutes in India and abroad, CSCR had special provision for funding and mentoring less endowed institutions, including those in North-East regions of India. Machine Intelligence Unit (MIU) founded by him in 1993 at ISI, Kolkata has now turned out to be an internationally recognized leading research school producing high quality manpower and science leaders. These demonstrate his

visionary A visionary, defined broadly, is one who can envision the future. For some groups, visioning can involve the supernatural. Though visionaries may face accusations of hallucinating, people may succeed in reaching a visionary state via medita ...

leadership. It is during Pal's directorship of ISI (2005-2010), when the birthday of Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis, the founder of ISI, was declared by the Prime Minister of India on 24 Dec 2006, as the “National Statistics Day” to be celebrated every year over the country. Further, establishing the ISI-Chennai Center, approving the ISI-North Eastern Center, and replacing UGC-pay scales by higher IISc-pay scales for faculty at ISI, are some other major achievements under his visionary leadership as Director of ISI. Pal is the founder president of the

Indian National Academy of Engineering The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) was founded in 1987. It consists of India's engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists covering the entire spectrum of engineering disciplines. The academy is registered under the Socie ...

, Kolkata Chapter. Biennial International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (PReMI), started in 2005, is his another brainchild. This facilitates regular interaction among Indian researchers with international experts in AI, ML and related areas for advancing science & technology. All these activities, including foundation of MIU & CSCR and visionary leadership as ISI-Director, have long lasting

educational Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...

and

societal A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soc ...

impact. PhDs that Prof. Pal has supervised in India and abroad are internationally well placed in academia and industry. It is not the number, but the quality which was his only concern. Many of his PhDs are now 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, Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transaction, Vice-President of Multinational IT Company, and Directors of premier national Institutes.

Philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

activities - Donations to Alma-maters and Instituting Medals/Fellowships to benefit the Science & Society: Besides his academic and research contributions, Pal has instituted the following awards through donations to his alma-maters, starting from school education. These

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

activities are aimed at nurturing the talent and scientific spirit as well as to help the students from less privileged community, which in turn benefits the society: 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 Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, Rahara, Kolkata 700118, India in 2024 for the Best Graduating BSc(Hons) Student across all science disciplines (currently seven) to nurture bright science-minds for higher studies as well as for the service of mankind, the motto of RK Mission. iii) A Gold Medal Award at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata 700108 in 2003 for the Best M.Tech.(Computer Science) Dissertation to encourage and promote research excellence. iv) Besides, he has been donating frequently to the Student Assistance Fund of Imperial College of Science & Technology, London, UK, his another Alma-mater, to help students from the developing world who face hardship to complete their study. NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA (Ref: Program co-ordinator Dr. Stanley H. Goldstein) desired to offer him a "

Green card A green card, known officially as a permanent resident card, is an identity document which shows that a person has permanent residency in the United States. ("The term 'lawfully admitted for permanent residence' means the status of having been ...

" in 1991 requesting to stay permanently in the USA when he was working there as a National Research Council (

) Guest Investigator (Resident Research Associate) during 1990-1992 and in 1994. But he turned down the offer and returned back to India to serve his country for ever. ''Family:'' Sunity Kumar Pal (father), Parul Bala Pal (mother), Dr. Amita Pal (wife), Dr. Dhiman Sankar Pal & Dr. Anshuman Sankar Pal (sons). Born on 13 September 1950, he the second of five siblings with brother: Samir, and sisters: Anuradha, Anurupa and Sutapa. He came from a very ordinary and honest family of many members and modest means. Hailing from an economically struggling family in post-independence period, he knows the kind of hurdles and hardship one must face to complete the higher studues including the 2nd-PhD from Imperial College, London, and reach the position where he is today.

Awards and recognition

Pal is the recipient of numerous awards and honours including: * 1990

(the most coveted award in science in India) * 2013

award (the fourth highest civilian award in India) * 1999 G.D. Birla Award for scientific research from an Ex-

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and his chosen Union Council of Ministers, Council of Ministers, despite the president of ...

(given to only one among all branches of science – basic, applied, medical) * 1998 Om Prakash Bhasin Award from the

* 2000

Al Khwarizmi Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi , or simply al-Khwarizmi, was a mathematician active during the Islamic Golden Age, who produced Arabic-language works in Mathematics in the medieval Islamic world, mathematics, Astronomy in the medieval Islami ...

International Award from the

President of Iran The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran () is the head of government of the Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran and the second highest-ranking official, after the Supreme Leader of Iran, supreme leader. The 1980 Iranian presidential election, fi ...

* 1993

Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship The Jawaharlal Nehru Trust Scholarship U.K. was founded by Admiral Lord Mountbatten of Burma in 1966 as a tribute to the India's first Prime Minister – Jawaharlal Nehru – after his death in 1964. The scholarship was funded by the Nehru ...

* 1993 Hari Om Ashram Prerit

Vikram Sarabhai Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (12 August 1919 – 30 December 1971) was an Indian physicist and astronomer who initiated space research and helped to develop nuclear power in India. Often regarded as the "''Father of Indian space program''", Sar ...

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 ...

Award (USA) * 1994

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

Transactions on Neural Networks Outstanding Paper Award (USA) * 1995

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Patent Application Award (USA) * 1997

IETE The Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) is India's leading recognized professional society devoted to the advancement of science, technology, electronics, telecommunication and information technology. Founded in ...

Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold Medal * 1998 Distinguished Scientist of

(first person outside Statistics & Mathematics to receive this honour from ISI) * 2000-2001

FICCI The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India. History Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla a ...

(Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) Award * 2001 Syed Husain Zaheer Medal of

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...

* 2003 5th Distinguished Information Technology Lecture, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology,

, 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 The Government of West Bengal, also known as the West Bengal Government, is the Administrative division, principal administrative authority of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal, created by the Constitution ...

* 2005-06 P.C. Mahalanobis Birth Centenary Gold Medal of

Indian Science Congress Association Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) is a premier scientific organisation of India with headquarters at Kolkata, West Bengal. The association started in the year 1914 in Calcutta and it meets annually in the first week of January. It h ...

from

for Lifetime Achievement * 2006 Distinguished Alumnus of the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics,

* 2007 J.C. Bose National Fellowship of the

* 2008 Vigyan Ratna Award from Science & Culture Organization * 2010 P.C. Mahalanobis Memorial Medal from Indian Science News Association * 2013 Chair Professor of

* 2013

Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...

Memorial Lecture award of the

Hyderabad Section, Hyderabad, India * 2015 S.N. Mitra Award of

* 2015

Raja Ramanna Raja Ramanna (28 January 1925 – 24 September 2004) was an Indian nuclear physicist. He was the director of India and weapons of mass destruction, India's nuclear program in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which culminated in Smiling Buddha ...

Distinguished Fellowship, Department of Atomic Energy,

* 2017

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

Birth Centenary Lecture Award of

* 2018 Distinguished Professorial Chair of

(one of the highest scientific honors that the Academy confers) * 2019 Scholar-in-Residence,

Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur (IIT Jodhpur or IITJ) is a Public university, public technical university located in Jodhpur in the state of Rajasthan in India. IIT Jodhpur is officially recognized as an Institute of National Importance ...

* 2018 Emeritus Professor of

* 2020 National Science Chair of the

* 2021

AICTE The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is a statutory body, and a national-level council for technical education, under the Department of Higher Education (India), Department of Higher Education. Established in November 1945 firs ...

nominated

Distinguished Chair Professor * 2023

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis OBE, FNA, FASc, FRS (29 June 1893 – 28 June 1972) was an Indian scientist and statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and for being one of the members of the fi ...

Memorial Lecture Award from the Department of Science and Technology and Biotechnology,

* 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award of

Ramakrishna Mission Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) is a spiritual and philanthropic organisation headquartered in Belur Math, West Bengal. The mission is named after the Indian Hindu spiritual guru and mystic Ramakrishna. The mission was founde ...

Vivekananda Centenary College, Rahara, Kolkata (given 1st time in 60 yrs of the college since 1963) * 2024

Distinguished Lecture Fellow Pal is an elected Fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

; The World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries (TWAS);

International Association for Pattern Recognition The International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR), is an international association of organizations dedicated to computer vision or pattern recognition. It only admits one organization per country or territory. Individual people partic ...

; International Fuzzy Systems Association; International Rough Set Society; Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association; International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance; Web Intelligence Academy (Founding Fellow);

;

The National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, also known as NASI, was established in 1930 and is the oldest science academy of India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu ...

;

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

; and

. He is an elected Foreign member of the

European Academy of Sciences and Arts The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, ) is a transnational and interdisciplinary network, connecting about 2,000 recommended scientists and artists worldwide, including 38 Nobel Prize laureates. The European Academy of Sciences and ...

. Currently, he is the 14th President of

and a Vice-President of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA), Hong Kong.

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 Fellows 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