SabinaGuffey at 15:47, 5 April 2026

2026-04-05T15:47:36Z

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{{Short description|Indian-American Statistician}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Madan Lal Puri
| image = [[File:Madan Puri, 1974.jpg|frameless]]
| image_size =
| caption = Madan Puri in 1974
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1929|2|20}}
| birth_place = Sialkot, India (now Pakistan)
| workplaces = Indiana University
| alma_mater = Punjab University, University of Colorado, University of California
| known_for = Work in statistics
}}

'''Madan Lal Puri''' (born February 20, 1929) is a [[Statistics|statistician]] from India who built his career in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Madan Lal Puri |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100355281 |access-date=2022-07-28 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en }}</ref> He was born on February 20, 1929 in [[Sialkot]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Madan Lal Puri - Biography |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Puri/ |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=Maths History |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Madan Lal Puri |url=https://www.bookofproofs.org/history/madan-lal-puri/# |access-date=2022-07-28 |website=www.bookofproofs.org}}</ref> and is known for his work in [[mathematics]] which has had profound effects on the way statistics is understood and applied.<ref name=":0" /> He has won many honours and awards, including the Bicentennial Medal<ref name=":7" /> from [[Indiana University Bloomington|Indiana University, Bloomington]].

== Biography ==
Puri was born in Sialkot in the [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]],<ref name=":0" /> which was a part of India but now is a part of [[Pakistan]] after the [[British Parliament]] passed the [[Indian Independence Act 1947|Indian Independence Act]] in 1947.<ref>''Indian Independence Act 1947,'' Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/10-11/30/enacted (Accessed: 30 June 2022)</ref> Due to this his family, including his parents Ganesh Das and S W Puri, fled as refugees to [[Delhi]].<ref name=":0" />

Before the act, Puri was studying in [[Punjab University, Lahore|Punjab University]] which got split into two separate universities;<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-07-11 |title=Chandigarh's Sector 14: A long way from Lahore |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/chandigarh-s-sector-14-a-long-way-from-lahore/story-GlDKZtA8v0YgKj5vxwxxqM.html |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Punjab University and Partition-II {{!}} Political Economy {{!}} thenews.com.pk |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/567010-punjab-university-partition-ii |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=www.thenews.com.pk |language=en}}</ref> Puri continued his studies in one of the new universities: the [[Panjab University|Panjab University in Chandigarh]].<ref name=":0" /> He was awarded a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A]] degree in 1948 and got his [[master's degree]] from the same university in 1950. In January 1951, he was appointed as lecturer of mathematics at the university and taught at several different colleges until August 1957.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Madan Lal Puri Collection |url=https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/21643 |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=scholarworks.iu.edu}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/9781482269772 |title=Asymptotics, Nonparametrics, and Time Series |date=1999-02-18 |publisher=CRC Press |doi=10.1201/9781482269772 |isbn=978-0-429-17534-3 |editor-last=Ghosh |editor-first=Subir}}</ref>

In September 1957, Puri moved the United States as he got appointed as an instructor and graduate student at the [[University of Colorado Boulder|University of Colorado, Boulder]]. In 1958 he moved to the [[University of California, Berkeley]], where he became a research assistant in statistics. His studies were supervised by [[Erich Leo Lehmann|Erich Lehmann]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Erich Lehmann - The Mathematics Genealogy Project |url=https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=12693 |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu}}</ref> and he was awarded his [[Doctor of Philosophy|doctorate]] in 1962 after submitting a thesis titled ''Asymptotic Efficiency of a Class of c-Sample Tests''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Puri |first=Madan Lal |date=1964 |title=Asymptotic Efficiency of a Class of c-Sample Tests |journal=The Annals of Mathematical Statistics |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=102–121 |doi=10.1214/aoms/1177703733 |jstor=2238021 |issn=0003-4851|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Madan Lal Puri {{!}} Department of Statistics |url=https://statistics.berkeley.edu/people/madan-lal-puri |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=statistics.berkeley.edu}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Madan Puri |url=https://math.indiana.edu/about/emeriti/puri-madan.html |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=Department of Mathematics |language=en}}</ref> After this, he was appointed as an assistant professor and later associate professor at the [[Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences]] in [[New York City|New York]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Puri |first1=Madan Lal |last2=Sen |first2=Pranab Kumar |date=October 1967 |title=On Robust Estimation in Incomplete Block Designs |url=https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.aoms/1177698715 |journal=The Annals of Mathematical Statistics |language=en |volume=38 |issue=5 |pages=1587–1591 |doi=10.1214/aoms/1177698715 |issn=0003-4851|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> He gained full professorship at Indiana University, Bloomington.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" />

== Accomplishments ==
On February 20, 2003, Puri was honoured with the title of College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Scholar.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=IU creates new title of College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Scholar for Madan Puri: IU News Room: Indiana University |url=https://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/1372.html |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=newsinfo.iu.edu}}</ref> [[Kumble R. Subbaswamy|Kumble Subbaswamy]], dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Official Curriculum Vitae of Chancellor Subbaswamy |url=https://www.umass.edu/chancellor/sites/default/files/cv.pdf |access-date=30 June 2022 }}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> said "...it was my great pleasure to honour Madan Lal Puri as College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Scholar. This rare designation is reserved for those who have become world leaders in a field while on the College faculty, and whose collected works are published because of their archival value."<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" />

Puri was elected as a member of the [[International Statistical Institute]], a fellow of the [[Institute of Mathematical Statistics]], a fellow of the [[American Statistical Association]], and a fellow of the [[Royal Statistical Society]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Additionally, he was an elected member of the [[New York Academy of Sciences]], and an honorary fellow of the [[International Indian Statistical Society]].<ref name=":1" />

In 1975, the Punjab University in India awarded him a [[Doctor of Science|D.Sc]]. In 1974 and 1983, he received the Senior U.S. Scientist Award from the [[Alexander von Humboldt Foundation]], and in 1974 he was honoured by the [[Germany|German]] government.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" /> He also has been honoured by universities in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the Middle East. In 1991, he was a Distinguished Visitor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" />

He has many books published in his honour, including ''Research Developments in Probability and Statistics: Festschrift in Honor of Madan L. Puri on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday,'' which has articles written by fifty-two different authors.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Citation |last1=Lenain |first1=Jean-FranÇois |title=Asymptotic Behavior of the Kernel Density Estimators for Nonstationary Dependent Random Variables with Binned Data |date=September 2011 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/9789814366571_0020 |work=Nonparametric Statistical Methods and Related Topics |pages=387–412 |publisher=WORLD SCIENTIFIC |access-date=2022-06-30 |last2=Harel |first2=Michel |last3=Puri |first3=Madan L.|doi=10.1142/9789814366571_0020 |isbn=978-981-4366-56-4 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

He was ranked as the fourth most prolific statistician in the world in a report by the [[Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council|Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada]]. Among statisticians in universities which do not have a separate department of statistics, he was ranked number one in the world in the same report.<ref name=":5" />

== Honors and awards ==
* 2019 Bicentennial Medal, Indiana University<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |title=New endowed chair named for esteemed mathematician Madan Lal Puri: Weinberg College - Northwestern University |url=https://weinberg.northwestern.edu/news-archive/2019/new-endowed-chair-named-for-esteemed-mathematician-madan-lal-puri.html |access-date=2022-06-30 |website=weinberg.northwestern.edu |language=en}}</ref>
* 2014 [[Wilks Memorial Award]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://imstat.org/2014/11/18/ims-members-receive-asa-awards/|title=IMS Members receive ASA awards|work=[[Institute of Mathematical Statistics]]|date=2014-11-18|access-date=2024-05-02}}</ref>
* 2008 [[Gottfried E. Noether Awards|Gottfried E. Noether Senior Scholar Award]]<ref>{{cite journal|title=ASA Awards at JSM |url=https://imstat.org/wp-content/uploads/Bulletin37_7.pdf|journal=IMS Bulletin|publisher=[[Institute of Mathematical Statistics]]|year=2008|volume=37|issue=7}}</ref>

== Books authored ==
* {{cite book | last1=Puri | first1=Madan L. | last2= Sen | first2= Pranab K.|authorlink2=Pranab K. Sen|title=Nonparametric Methods in General Linear Models | publisher=Wiley | publication-place=New York | year=1985 | isbn=978-0471702276}}
* {{cite book | last1=Puri | first1=Madan L. | last2= Sen | first2= Pranab K.|title=Nonparametric Methods in Multivariate Analysis | publisher=Wiley | publication-place=New York | year=1971 | isbn=978-0471702405}}
* {{cite book | last=Puri | first=Madan L. |title=Asymptotic Efficiency of a Class of C-Sample Tests | publisher=Forgotten Books | publication-place=London | year=2024 |type = reprint of the 1962 original| isbn=9781333542085}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book | editor1-last=Hall | editor1-first=Peter G. |editor-link1=Peter Gavin Hall | editor2-last=Hallin | editor2-first=Marc | editor3-last=Roussas | editor3-first=George G. |editor-link3=George Roussas | title=Madan Lal Puri, Selected Collected Works, Vol.s 1–3 | publisher=VSP | publication-place=Utrecht | year=2003 | isbn=90-6764-387-4}}

== References ==
<references />

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puri, Madan Lal}}
[[Category:Indian statisticians]]
[[Category:Indiana University Bloomington faculty]]
[[Category:Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]
[[Category:Panjab University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Sialkot]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian mathematicians]]
[[Category:1929 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Punjab Province (British India)]]
[[Category:20th-century statisticians]]

Madan Lal Puri - Revision history

SabinaGuffey at 15:47, 5 April 2026