Sankar Kumar Pal (born 1950 in Kolkata, India) is an Indian computer scientist. He completed studies at Rajabazar Science College, University of Calcutta, the Indian Statistical Institute, and Imperial College London, followed by post-doctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Maryland, College Park, and the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Pal has served as Director and is currently the president of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata. He is an ANRF Prime Minister Professor of the Government of India, currently hosted at IIIT Bhubaneswar.

His research encompasses pattern recognition, image processing, fuzzy neural networks, rough fuzzy hybridization, soft computing, granular mining, and machine intelligence.^[2] His work focuses on fuzzy set theory, neuro-fuzzy systems, and rough-fuzzy computing for uncertainty modelling, with applications in pattern recognition, image processing, machine learning, knowledge-based systems, and data mining. At ISI, he founded the Machine Intelligence Unit in 1993 and the Center for Soft Computing Research in 2004.^[1] Pal received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 1990 and was awarded the Padma Shri in Science and Engineering by the President of India in 2013 for his contributions in machine intelligence.^[2]

Pal studied at the University of Calcutta, earning a BSc in physics in 1969, a BTech in 1972, and an MTech in 1974 in radio physics and electronics.^[4] As a student of the Indian Statistical Institute, he received a PhD in radio physics and electronics focusing on pattern recognition from Rajabazar Science College, University of Calcutta, in 1979.^[2] He subsequently earned a second PhD in electrical engineering focusing on image processing along with the Diploma of Imperial College from Imperial College London in 1982.^[2] After completing his PhD at Imperial College London as a Commonwealth Scholar, he served as a UK Medical Research Council postdoctoral fellow from 1982 to 1983.

Pal worked at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Maryland, College Park as a Fulbright Fellow from 1986 to 1987, and at the NASA Johnson Space Center as a US National Research Council Senior Resident Research Associate in 1990–1992 and 1994. He also held visiting positions at the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., and at several universities across Australia, Poland, Italy, France, New Zealand, Japan, and Hong Kong. Furthermore, he established collaborations with institutions including the University of Warsaw (1997–2017), University of Naples Federico II (2004–2020), INSEAD (2001–2013), and Hong Kong Polytechnic University (1999–2008).^[2]

Pal joined the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, as a CSIR senior research fellow in 1975, later becoming a professor in 1987, distinguished scientist in 1998, director from 2005 to 2010, and President for 2022–2026.^[6] He retired from ISI as a distinguished scientist in 2015. He was both the first computer scientist to serve as ISI director and the first former employee elected as ISI president.^[7] During his directorship between 2005 and 2010, ISI established the Chennai and North Eastern Centers, implemented revised pay scales for faculty, and began celebrating P.C. Mahalanobis's birthday as National Statistics Day from 2006.

Pal introduced Soft Computing research in India in the mid-1990s. In 2004, the Department of Science and Technology established the Center for Soft Computing Research (CSCR) at ISI with Pal as Principal Investigator, and it became an Associate Institute of ISI in 2010. Under his guidance, the Biennial International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence (PReMI) originated from the Machine Intelligence Unit of ISI, Kolkata, in 2005. Pal has also served as founding president of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Kolkata Chapter. He has co-authored over 500 publications, 21 books, and 20 conference proceedings, holds two U.S. patents, and has served as editor for more than 20 journals in computer science and engineering.^[9,10,11] His book, Fuzzy Mathematical Approach to Pattern Recognition, published by John Wiley & Sons (Halsted Press), has been translated into Indonesian and Chinese.^[12]

Pal was born on 13 September 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 an elected fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, TWAS, the International Association for Pattern Recognition, the International Fuzzy Systems Association, the International Rough Set Society, the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association, the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance, the Web Intelligence Academy (as a founding fellow), the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Sciences, India, and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He is also a foreign member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. Additionally, he serves as the 14th President of the Indian Statistical Institute and as a vice president of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance.

Pal has received numerous awards throughout his career. In the 1990s, his honors included the 1990 Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the 1993 Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship, the 1993 Hari Om Ashram Prerit Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, the 1993 NASA Tech Briefs Award, the 1994 IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks Outstanding Paper Award, and the 1995 NASA Patent Application Award. He received the IETE Ram Lal Wadhwa Gold Medal in 1997, the Om Prakash Bhasin Award from the Prime Minister of India in 1998, recognition as a Distinguished Scientist of the Indian Statistical Institute in 1998, and the G.D. Birla Award in 1999. During the 2000s, he was awarded the inaugural Al Khwarizmi International Award from the President of Iran in 2000, the 2000–2001 FICCI Award, the Syed Husain Zaheer Medal of the Indian National Science Academy in 2001, the 5th Distinguished Information Technology Lecture from the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India in 2003, and the 1st "Bengal Science Lecture" Award from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of West Bengal in 2004. His recognitions continued with the 2005–06 P.C. Mahalanobis Birth Centenary Gold Medal of the Indian Science Congress Association presented by the Prime Minister of India, being named a Distinguished Alumnus of the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics at the University of Calcutta in 2006, the J.C. Bose National Fellowship from the Government of India in 2007, the Vigyan Ratna Award in 2008, and the P.C. Mahalanobis Memorial Medal from the Indian Science News Association in 2010.

In 2013, Pal was conferred the Padma Shri, became a Chair Professor of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and received the Faraday Memorial Lecture award from the IEEE Hyderabad Section. He subsequently received the S.N. Mitra Award from the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the Raja Ramanna Distinguished Fellowship from the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India in 2015, followed by the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture Award from the Indian National Science Academy in 2017. In 2018, he was appointed a Distinguished Professorial Chair of the Indian National Science Academy and an Emeritus Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, later becoming a Scholar-in-Residence at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur in 2019, a National Science Chair of the Government of India in 2020, and an AICTE Distinguished Chair Professor in 2021. His later honors include the 2023 Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis Memorial Lecture Award from the Department of Science & Technology and Biotechnology, Government of West Bengal, the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Centenary College, and being appointed an Indian National Science Academy Distinguished Lecture Fellow in 2024. In 2025, Pal was appointed an ANRF Prime Minister Professor by the Government of India, a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore, and received a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.), honoris causa, from Sai University, Chennai.

External resources include the subject's official homepage, a biography at Yatedo, and an entry in the Biographical Dictionary of Indian Scientists. Publication records can also be found through the Indian Academy of Sciences and Google Scholar.