Professor N. Balakrishnan- known simply as `Bala’ to those close to him- is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at McMaster University and a world renowned statistician.  For nearly 30 years, he has been providing many valuable services to his students, his department, the university, and the academic community at large.

Professor Balakrishnan

Professor Balakrishnan received a Bachelor of Science (Statistics) and Masters of Science (Statsitics) from the University of Madras, India in 1976 and 1978, respectively. Following these, he received his Ph.D. (Statistics) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India in 1981.  From there he held various positions, including a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Manitoba. He soon joined McMaster University, which has since become his home. At McMaster University, he has had a successful career in teaching, research and service to the university and community. He has served as the Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Statistics and has been awarded several teaching awards. As a supervisor, he has supervised over 60 M.Sc. students and over 50 Ph.D. students.

Worldwide, he has given and continues to give lectures and workshops to students and faculty alike. He has been a visiting professor in universities around the world, including the University of Waterloo, King Saud University, Bowling Green State University, and the University of Vienna.

He is an Elected member of the International Statistical Institute, a fellow of the American Statistical Association, a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and a Fellow of the Turkish Statistical Association. He is also an elected honorary member of the Greek Statistical Institute and a winner of the Don Owen award as presented by the American Statistical Association. He has served as Associate Editor for several journals and Editor-in-Chief for Communications in Statistics (Theory & Methods and Simulation & Computation) for many years. He was also the Editor-in-Chief for the Revised Edition of the Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences.

Amongst his various areas of expertise, his research areas include ordered data, survival analysis and distribution theory. With nearly 300 co-authors and approximately 500 published articles, along with several authored and co-authored books, he  is likely one of the most prolific researchers in the world.

Reflecting on his contributions to teaching, research and the general scientific community, Professor Balakrishnan is an academic in its truest sense.