Background
Mardia, Kantilal Vardichand was born on April 3, 1935 in Sirohi, India. Son of Vardi Chand and Dhelu Bai (Singhi) Mardia.
Mardia, Kantilal Vardichand was born on April 3, 1935 in Sirohi, India. Son of Vardi Chand and Dhelu Bai (Singhi) Mardia.
Mardia was educated at the Ismail Yusuf College at the University of Bombay (Bachelor of Science 1955, Master of Science in Statistics 1957), the University of Poona (Master of Science in Pure Mathematics 1961), the University of Rajasthan (Doctor of Philosophy 1965) and the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (Doctor of Philosophy 1967, Doctor of Science 1973).
He is known for his series of tests of multivariate normality based measures of multivariate skewness and kurtosis as well as work on the statistical measures of shape. He held academic positions at the Institute of Science, Mumbai and the University of Hull. Mardia was appointed Professor of Applied Statistics and Head of the Department of Statistics in the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds in 1973.
He retired in 2000 with the title Emeritus Professor and is currently Senior Research Professor of Applied Statistics at Leeds.
He is also a long term Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford from March 2013. 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 centres 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.
In 2013 he was awarded the Wilks Memorial Award by the American Statistical Association.
Fellow Royal Statistical Society, American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematics Statistical. Member International Statistical Institute.
Married Pavan Kumari Bafna, July 2, 1958. Children– Bela, Hemant, Neeta.