Sankar K. Pal (https://www.isical.ac.in/~sankar) is a Distinguished Scientist and former Director of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI). Currently, he is an ANRF Prime Minister Professor, Govt. of India, hosted at IIIT Bhubaneswar; and the President of Indian Statistical Institute, as well as its Emeritus Professor. He is also an AICTE nominated AICTE-Distinguished Chair Professor, a Scholar-in-Residence of IIT Jodhpur, Visiting Distinguished Professor of IIT Indore; Adjunct Professor of IIIT Gwalior, and a Vice-President of International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA). He founded the Machine Intelligence Unit and the Center for Soft Computing Research: A National Facility in ISI, Calcutta. He received a Ph.D. in Radio Physics and Electronics from Indian Statistical Institute/ University of Calcutta in 1979, and another Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering along with DIC from Imperial College, University of London in 1982. He joined his Institute (ISI) in 1975 as a CSIR Senior Research Fellow where he became a Full Professor in 1987, a Distinguished Scientist in 1998, later serving as the Director during 2005-2010, and the President during 2022-2026.

Prof. Pal worked at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Maryland, College Park in 1986-87; the NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas in 1990-92 & 1994; and in US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC in 2004. Since 1997 he has been a Distinguished Visitor of IEEE Computer Society (USA) for the Asia-Pacific Region, and held several visiting positions in Italy, Poland, Hong Kong and Australian universities.

He is a co-author of twenty one books, five hundred research publications and two US patents in the areas of Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning, Image/Video Processing, Data Mining, Granular Computing, Soft Computing, Neural Nets, Genetic Algorithms, Fuzzy Sets, Rough Sets, Web Intelligence, Social Networks, Cognitive Machine, Bioinformatics, Safety Analytics, and Climate Analytics. He has made fundamental contributions to machine intelligence research by developing various modern approaches. He pioneered the development of fuzzy set theory, and neuro-fuzzy and rough-fuzzy computing, in general, and their applications in pattern recognition, image processing, machine learning, granular mining, knowledge-based systems, and data science and analytics, in particular. He is the scientist who introduced the Soft Computing concept and research in India. He visited about forty countries as a keynote/ invited speaker or an academic visitor.

Prof. Pal is a Fellow of IEEE, the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), International Association for Pattern recognition, International Association of Fuzzy Systems, International Rough Set Society, Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA), International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA), Web Intelligence Academy (WIA), and all the four National Academies for Science/Engineering in India. He is also a Foreign Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts.

He has received the 1990 S.S. Bhatnagar Prize (which is the most coveted award for a scientist in India); 2013 Padma Shri (one of the highest civilian awards) by the President of India, and many prestigious awards in India and abroad including the 1999 G.D. Birla Award; 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 Brief Award (USA); 1994 IEEE Trans. Neural Networks Outstanding Paper Award; 1995 NASA Patent Application Award (USA); 1997 IETE-R.L. Wadhwa Gold Medal; 2001 INSA-S.H. Zaheer Medal; 2006 Indian Science Congress-P.C. Mahalanobis Birth Centenary Gold Medal from the 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; 2008 Vigyan Ratna Award from Science and Culture Organization, West Bengal; 2013 INAE Chair Professorship; 2013 IETE Diamond Jubilee Medal; 2014 IEEE Fellow Class Golden Jubilee Medal; 2015 INAE-S.N. Mitra Award; 2015 DAE Raja Ramanna Fellowship, Govt. of India; 2017 INSA-Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture Award; 2018 INSA-Distinguished Professorial Chair; 2020 SERB-National Science Chair, Govt. of India; First Prof. C. Mohan Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Soft Computing from the Soft Computing Research Society, 2020; 2021 AICTE-Distinguished Chair Professor; 2023-P.C. Mahalanobis Memorial Lecture Award, Department of Science and Technology and Biotechnology, Govt. of West Bengal; 2023-Distinguished Alumni Award from Ramkrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, Calcutta; 2024 INSA-Distinguished Lecture Fellowship; and Doctor of Science (D.Sc), honoris causa from Sai University, Chennai on October 2025.

Prof. Pal is/was an Associate Editor of IEEE Trans. Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (2002-06), IEEE Trans. Neural Networks (1994-98 & 2003-06), IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Systems (1993-95), Neurocomputing (1995-2005), Pattern Recognition Letters (1993-2011), Int. J. Pattern Recognition & Artificial Intelligence, Information Sciences, Fuzzy Sets and Systems, LNCS Trans. Rough Sets, Journal of Data, Information and Management, Applied Intelligence (2002-12), Fundamenta Informaticae (2003-19), IET Image Processing (2007-19), Int. J. Computational Intelligence and Applications, Ingeniería y Ciencia (2014-15), and J. Intelligent Information Systems (2008-12); Editor-in-Chief, Int. J. Signal Processing, Image Processing and Pattern Recognition (2008-19); a Book Series Editor, Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications, IOS Press, and Statistical Science and Interdisciplinary Research, World Scientific; a Member, Executive Advisory Editorial Board, IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Systems, Int. Journal on Image and Graphics, Int. Journal of Approximate Reasoning, and Data-Centric Engineering, Cambridge Univ. Press; and a Guest Editor of IEEE Computer, IEEE SMC, and Theoretical Computer Science.

Besides, Prof. Pal has made him available for the societal benefits and promoting education/research at large: i) participated in as much as 40 science outreach programs for school and college students including North-East states; ii) established biennial International Conference “Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence” in 2005; iii) founded Kolkata-Chapter of INAE in 2007 to help the regional engineering students/professionals; and iv) instituted two Merit-cum-Means Scholarships in his alma-mater at Kolkata in 2013 for supporting economically disadvantaged students of Classes IX and X every year, a Gold Medal at Ramkrishna Mission-Vivekananda Centenary College, Kolkata in 2023 for motivating best graduating B.Sc.(Hons) student to higher studies, and a Gold Medal at ISI in 2003 for best M.Tech.(CS) dissertation to encourage research excellence.
 

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