Kantilal Mardia

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Kanti V. Mardia
Kanti V. Mardia, April 24, 2008, Copenhagen.
Born	April 3, 1935
Fields	Statistics
Institutions	University of Leeds
Known for	directional statistics, shape analysis, multivariate analysis

Kantilal Vardichand ("Kanti") Mardia (1935-) is a statistician specializing in directional statistics, multivariate analysis, geostatistics, statistical bioinformatics and statistical shape analysis^[1]. 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, 1957), 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 held 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, and more recently, bioinformatics. Due to his initiative and efforts, the Centre of Statistical Bioinformatics (CoSB), Leeds, has been recently established. Mardia is the centre's Adjunct Director.

In 2003 he was awarded the Guy Medal in Silver by the Royal Statistical Society.^[2]

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 Chairman of the Yorkshire Jain Foundation, and Vice-Chairman and a Trustee of the Jain Academy.