Mathematical Sciences

Balgobin Nandram

Professor of Statistics

ASA Fellow

Welcome to my homepage!

Balgobin Nandram (Bal) is a native of Guyana (British Guiana), and is of Indian origin. Bal earned a Master's degree in Applied Statistics at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in 1981. He then returned to Guyana, and after three years, he came to the United States August 1984. He studied at first at the State University of New York at Albany, and after one year, he moved to the University of Iowa where he earned the Ph.D. in statistics after an additional four years.

In August 1989 Bal joined the Mathematical Sciences' faculty at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts as Assistant Professor of Statistics. In 1995 he obtained tenure from WPI and was promoted to Associate Professor. At last, after a long productive period at WPI, July 1, 2003 Bal was promoted to Professor of Statistics.

Bal is married to Minwantie (Min) since 1978, and they are blessed with one daughter, Nankumarie (Nan), who was born in London while he was working towards the Master's degree in Statistics. After residing for fifteen years in the U.S., Bal and Min were sworn in as U.S. citizens April 29, 1999. Nan is also an American citizen as well. Nan obtained the B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, May 2003, and the M.S. in Biomedical Engineering with specialization in Bio-Mechanics, February 2005, both from WPI. Since December 2005, Nan has been working for Perceptive Informatics at Waltham, and she brags about her work in Medical Images.

May 30 - June 4, 2007 Bal visited Guyana on a family emergency. This is Bal's first visit to Guyana since he came to the United States of America, twenty-three years ago. Bal found that the streets and the houses are smaller, and life is faster. There are televisions and telephones in every house he visited, and it is easy to go from one place to the other via taxi.

From January 1, 1999 to June 30, 2000 Bal was the first NCHS/ASA Research Fellow at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Maryland. During this time, Bal lived in the DC area for periods of two weeks. After each two weeks' period, he returned home in Worcester to visit his family and students at WPI. Summer, May-August 2001, Bal spent most of his time doing research at the NCHS living in the same manner as he did when he was a Research Fellow there.

July 2002 - August 2003 Bal visited the NCHS again. With his regular teaching load at WPI, he worked one week each month at the NCHS that year. Currently, he holds an office at the NCHS, Office of Research and Methodology, Room 3220, 3311 Toledo Road, Hyattsville, Maryland (Voice: 301 458 4688; Fax: 301 458 4031; Email: bbn9@cdc.gov).

August 2001 Bal visited Korea for ten days. He made a great presentation in Taejon, and visited many places in Seoul, guided by Geunshik Han. This is the first time Bal visited that part of the world.

The second trip to Asia took Bal to the Philippines, February 6-18, 2002. He was a guest of De La Salle University (DLSU) and the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB). At DLSU he gave a seven-hour workshop in Bayesian Statistics, a one-hour discussion of his research, and a seminar. At UPLB Corinne defended her Ph.D. thesis, and Bal gave a seminar as well.

Bal, Min and and Nan had a one-week (May 26 - June 2, 2003) family vacation in London. They visited many places including Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, where Bal did the MS in Statistics, St. Georges Hospital, where Nan was born, and Lords Cricket Ground (Bal was actively involved in cricket in Guyana!) Our main means of transportation in London was the underground train. The rides on the British Airlines Bowing 747 and the stay in the Royal National Hotel were terrific.

During the academic year 2003/2004 Bal spent his sabbatical leave at the National Center for Health Statistics, Hyattsville, Maryland.

TRIPS TO THE PHILIPPINES

My second trip to the Philippines was in February 1-14, 2004. I visited De La Salle University in Manila, the Universities of the Philippines at Los Banos in Laguna and at Diliman in Quezon City. I also visited the Statistical Research and Training Center (an office of the Filipino government) in Quezon City. This trip was mostly covered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and partially by De La Salle University and the Statistical Research and Training Center.

I gave my technical talk on ``Bayesian Analysis of Nonignorable Missing Categorical Data: An Application to Bone Mineral Density and Family Income" on three different days at each of the three universities. Lawrence Cox and Jai Choi are co-authors on this work.

Beside my technical talk, I also spoke on two other subjects. At De La Salle University I gave a one-hour talk on ``How to advise graduate students?" People attended from many departments on Campus and other universities. At the Statistical Research and Training Center I gave another one-hour talk on ``Monitoring the Health of the US Population: National Center for Health Statistics" and the audience was well represented by people from many government departments. I received a very warm welcome: The National Anthem of the Philippines was played in my honor.

I also spent several hours advising faculty and graduate students at the three Universities. Currently I am an Associated Faculty at the University of the Philippines. I also worked very hard with my PhD students at the University of the Philippines, Diliman.

On each day in the Philippines, after jugging on the beach near the U.S. Embassy, a huge complex, I drank a very delicious young coconut and ate the jelly for just twenty U.S. cents. (The cost in New York City is US $3.50, and you can't have it with such style!) There were three other highlights of my trip. I ate at the Banana Leaf Restaurant (yes, on banana leave) and at the Crocodile Restaurant (no alligators though), both in Makati, a well developed business area. The faculty of the Mathematics Department of De La Salle University finally treated me at the elaborate buffet of the Kamayan Restaurant; Kamayan Restaurant is a chain of restaurants which specializes in native or Filipino cuisine and "Kamayan" is a Filipino word which means "by hands".

For pleasure I had a one-day vacation on the island of Corrigdor where the Spanish-American and the Japanese-American wars were fought during World War II.

Finally, I would like to make two comments. I must thank my PhD student, Corinne Burgos and 2003 winner of the ISI prestigious Jan Tibergen Award, for the enormously successful organization of my trip. Also, it is incumbent on me to say that, unlike many other places I visited and lived, I found that Filipinos are extremely pleased and satisfied with what they have.

FIRST TRIP TO INDIA

My third trip to Asia was to India, the land of my origin, December 26, 2004 - January 12, 2005. One of the things I did was to visit Luckmanpur (Utter Pradesh), the place of origin of my fore-parents. My trip started from Boston, MA, on the same day the Tsumani struck. My flight went from Boston to Newark to Paris to Bombay to Hyderabad, my first real stop in India December 28, 2004. On January 2, 2005, I flew to Delhi, where I was on vacation. At Delhi I had the great adventure of visiting the Taj Mahal, Agra. On December 5, 2005 I flown to Varanasi, Utter Pradesh, the City for the Hindus. Here I had the great opportunity to visit the home of my ancestors, Luckmanpur. Azamgarh is a city about 100 kilometers north of Varanasi, and Luckmanpur, is a village in the Paddy Fields, 20 kilometers north of Azamgarh. This is an enormous achievement in my life: I am the first person in my family line to return to the place of origin, and it took well over a hundred years. On my return trip, I flew to Delhi, where I spent three more days. Then, I flew to Bombay, where I spent just one day. Then, I flew to London, and then on the Virgin Airlines (all my international trip used Air India) to Boston. Pictures: top panel - Hyderabad; middle panel - Delhi and Agra; bottom panel - Varansasi and Luckmanpur.

SECOND TRIP TO INDIA

My fourth trip to Asia was my second trip to India. I visited Kolkata, Banaras and Kochin. I started from Boston, December 25, 2006, and returned to Boston, January 8, 2007.

April 8 - 18, 2005 I visited Australia. April 8-13 I was in Sydney, New South Wales, partially at the International Statistical Institute (ISI) meeting. April 13-18 I was in Cairns, Queensland, mostly at the the Fourth International Symposium in Business and Industrial Statistics, a Satellite Conference of the ISI. The Australians are very nice, and their economy appears to be much ahead of the US. It is interesting that I have lived in three continents of the world, and I have now visited three of the other continents. Pictures: top panel - Sydney; bottom panel - Cairns.

Degrees with Fields, Institutions and Dates

• Ph.D., Statistics, University of Iowa, 1989
• M.Sc., Statistics, Imperial College, London, 1981
• Dip. Ed. (PWD), Mathematics Education, University of Guyana, Guyana, 1979
• B.Sc. (PWD), Mathematics and Physics, University of Guyana, Guyana, 1977

Recent Awards

• SPAIG Award was won by the WPI-NCHS partnership based on my work with statisticians and scientists at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), 2006. The American Statistical Association recognizes outstanding statistical partnerships established between academe and business, industry, and government (SPAIG). My students and I have been working continuously with the NCHS for nearly ten years.
• Fellow of the American Statistical Association, 2003.
• Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute, 2003.
• Sinclair Professor of Mathematical Sciences, WPI, 2003.
• Elected Member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, 2004.

Paper Awards

• CDC Statistical Science Award is won by ``Nandram, B., Han, G. and Choi, J. W. (2002), A Hierarchical Bayesian Nonignorable Nonresponse Model for Multinomial Data from Small Areas, Survey Methodology, 28, 145-156," for the best Applied Statistics paper, as judged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 2003.

Other Awards

• Research Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the National Center for Health Statistics, January, 1999 - June, 2000.
• Diploma of Imperial College , 1981.
• Commonwealth Scholar awarded by the Association of Commonwealth Universities; work done at Imperial College, London 1979/81.
• Irving Adler Prize for the Best Graduating Student in Mathematics, University of Guyana, 1977.

Editorial and Advisory Boards

• Associate Editor, Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA - ACS)
• Associate Editor, Case Studies in Business, Industry and Government Statistics (CSBIGS)
• Associate Editor, Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods (JMASM)
• Associate Editor, Served on the Editorial Board of The American Statistician (TAS), 2003-2005.
• Advisory Board Member, Served as a health services research and health policy expert on the Fellowship's Board of Advisors for the Academy of Health Services Research and Health Policy, DC, 2001-2004.

Areas of Research Interest

Bayesian Statistics as applied to Survey Methodology and Small Area Estimation, Computational Methods, Statistical Consulting and Statistics Education.

Service at WPI and Other Institutions

• Professor at WPI: July, 2003 - present
• Associate Professor at WPI: July, 1995 - June, 2003
• Assistant Professor at WPI: July, 1989 - June, 1995
• Lecturer I & II at University of Guyana: July, 1981 - August, 1984
• Instructor at Unniversity of Guyana: July, 1977 - August, 1979
• Assistant Master, Golden Grove Government Secondary School, Guyana: August, 1973 - August, 1974

Scientific and Professional Society Memberships

• American Statistical Association (ASA)
• International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA)
• Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS)
• International Indian Statistical Association (IISA), life member

Selected Refereed Publications

1. Nandram, B. and Choi, J. W. (2002), Hierarchical Bayesian nonresponse models for binary data from small areas with uncertainty about ignorability, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 97, 381-388.
2. Nandram, B., Sedransk, J., and Pickle, L. (2000), Bayesian analysis and mapping of mortality rates for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 95, 1110-1118.
3. Nandram, B., Sedransk, J., and Smith, S. J. (1997),Order Restricted Bayesian Estimation of the Age Composition of a Population of Atlantic Cod, Journal of the American Statistical Association , 92, 33-40.
4. Nandram, B. and Sedransk, J. (1993), Empirical Bayes Estimation for the Finite Population Mean on the Current Occasion, Journal of the American Statistical Association , 88, 994-1000.

Summer 2007 Presentations

MA541/4632, Probability and Mathematical Statistics II

MA2621, Probability for Applications

Department of Mathematical Sciences, Stratton Hall

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609

Voice: 508-831-5539; Fax: 508-831-5824

Last modified: July 26, 2007: Thursday 3:10 pm