Program co-Chair

(“Jackpot” Pal)

Nikhil R. Pal is a Professor in the Machine Intelligence Unit of Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta.  He obtained his B. Sc. (Hons.) in physics and the M. B. M. (operations research) in 1979 and 1982, respectively from the University of Calcutta. He received his M. Tech. and Ph. D. degrees in computer science from the Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, in 1984 and 1991, respectively. He was with the Hindusthan Motors Ltd. W. B., from 1984 to 1985 and with the Dunlop India Ltd., W. B., from 1985 to 1987.  In 1987 he joined the Computer Science Unit of Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta.  During  August 1991 - February 1993, July 1994- Dec. 1994 , and Oct 1996- Dec. 1996 he visited the University of West Florida, USA. He was  a guest lecturer at the University of Calcutta. His research interests include Image processing, pattern recognition, fuzzy sets and systems, uncertainty measures, genetic algorithms, fuzzy control, and neural networks. He is an associate editor of the  IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems  and the International Journal of Approximate Reasoning. Nik has been the program chair of several conferences, including AFSS 2002 and ICONIP 2005, and will be a visiting professor at the University of West Florida for the 2003-2004 academic year.