Kanti Mardia

Kanti V. Mardia
Kanti V. Mardia, April, 24th, 2008, Copenhagen.
Born	1935
Known for	directional statistics
Scientific career
Fields	Statistics
Institutions	University of Leeds

Kantilal Vardichand ("Kanti") Mardia (1935-) is a statistician specializing in directional statistics, multivariate analysis, geostatistics, statistical bioinformatics and statistical shape analysis.

He was born in Sirohi, Rajasthan, India and now resides and works in Leeds.

Mardia obtained degrees from the Ismail Yusuf College at the University of Bombay (1955), the University of Poona (1961), the University of Rajasthan (1965) and Newcastle University (1967, 1973), and held positions at the Institute of Science, Bombay and the University of Hull. He currently works at the University of Leeds, where he was Chair of Applied Statistics and currently is Senior Research Professor of Applied Statistics.

He was instrumental in founding the Centre of Medical Imaging Research (CoMIR) in the University of Leeds where he holds the position of joint director. He was the driving force behind the exchange programs between Leeds and other scholarly centers such as the University of Granada, Spain, and the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. He has written several scholarly books and edited conference proceedings and other special volumes.

In 1973, Mardia founded the University of Leeds Annual Statistics Research Workshops (LASR) which have run for most years and he has edited all the proceedings. These workshops attract an international audience and focus on applied statistical topics especially those involving shape and images.

In 2003 he was awarded the Guy Medal in Silver by the Royal Statistical Society.

He is a practicing Jain and eats a strict-vegetarian diet. He has published a book on The scientific foundations of Jainism[1] and is Vice-Chairman of the Yorkshire Jain Foundation, and Vice-Chairman and a Trustee of the Jain Academy.

Publications

• Multivariate Analysis (coauthored with John T. Kent and John Bibby)
• Statistics of Directional Data (second edition coauthored with Peter Jupp)
• Statistical Shape Analysis (coauthored with Ian Dryden)

References

• Nitis Mukhopadhyay (2002). "A Conversation with Kanti Mardia". Statistical Science. 17 (1): 113–148.

External links

• Home page at Leeds University
• Review of the LASR on the occasion of Mardias 60th Birthday by Fred Bookstein.
• Yorkshire Jain Foundation