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 (now at Billerica), and she brags about her work in Medical Images. She obtained her second promotion to Image Operations Lead, October 10, 2011.

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).

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.

TRIP TO SOUTH KOREA-PHILIPPINES-THAILAND, June 3-24, 2012.

South Korea: June 3-10, 2012; Philippines: June 10-17, 2012, June 20-24, 2012; Thailand: June 17-20, 2012. This is my third trip to South Korea, third trip to Philippines and first trip to Thailand. The highlights of my trip were my one-day vacation in Busan, South Korea, my one-day vacation at Tagaytay, Philippines, and my accommodation at the Shangri-La hotel, Bangkok (City of Angels).

In South Korea Mr. Sang-gyu Kwak (Bob) defended his dissertation on "Bayesian Inference on Contingency Tables with Uncertainty about Independence". Also two students started PhD dissertations. I gave a technical talk at Kyungpook National University. I also discussed the Joint PhD Program with the faculty. In Busan I visited Taejongdae (train ride), Jagalchi-market (grilled fish), Dongbaek Island (shore street) and Heaundae Beach. In Daegu I also visited the Buddhist Temple at Donghwasa on the slope of the Palgongsan Mountain. Each morning at 5:30 I jugged in the Kyungpook National University stadium.

In total I made six presentations, including a six-hour workshop on Bayesian Small Area Estimation and a non-technical lecture on Research at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In the Philippines two students also started their PhD dissertations. Several students in the Philippines expressed interest in WPI's PhD Program in Statistics. I also made a one-day visit to the University of the Philippines at Los Banos and a half-day visit to the University of the Philippines at Diliman. The highlight of my trip in Los Banos was the lunch with the faculty at the Kamayan Sa Palaisdan floating restaurant in Calamba. During this trip I made several connections for WPI with regards to a Project Center in Manila and Joint PhD Programs in the Philippines. At DLSU I discussed WPI's Project Centers and the Joint PhD Programs with Dr. Alvin Culaba, Executive Vice President for External Relations and Internationalization Office and Professor of Mechanical Engineering. My vacation, with Shirlee and Reggie and their families, in Tagaytay was a memorable one. We ate lunch, a grand one, in Leslie's Restaurant, Tagaytay. We visited Tagaytay picnic grove (park with the rides) and Taal Vista Hotel (believed to be the best view of the iconic Taal volcano). On our way we stopped at many fruit markets on the side of the road. I enjoyed the wet market ("dampa") on the Manila Bay. Here you buy the life fish or shrimp, you take it to a nearby restaurant and tell them how to cook it. I also enjoyed jugging on the Manila Bay and drinking a young cocoanut (``buko'') at the end of my jug.

In Bangkok I gave a talk at the International Symposium on Business and Industrial Statistics. I also organized an invited section at the symposium. More attractive to me were swimming in the ``pond floating in heaven'', the luxurious breakfast at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok and the hosputality of the hotel's employees.

The cost of my trip was mostly covered by Kyungpook National University, South Korea, and De La Salle University, Philippines. Worcester Polytechnic Insttute, School of Statistics, University of the Philippines at Diliman, Institute of Statistics, University of the Philippines at Los Banos also pitched in, and there was a some support from my grant.

INVITED PRESENTATIONS, INDIA, JANUARY 2013

a. ''Bayesian Predictive Inference of the Performance of Third Grade Students by Areas'', Conference of the International Indian Statistical Association, Savera Hotel, Chennai, India, January 4, 2013.

b. ''Bayesian Uncertainty Analysis for a Proportion under Nonignorable Nonresponse'', (Plenary speaker), ISBA-IWCBTA Conference, Department of Statistics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, January 8, 2013.

c. ''An Introduction to the Hierarchical Bayesian Model'', (presented to nearly one hundred MS and PhD students), Department of Statistics, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India, January 15, 2013.

d. ''Assessing Coorrelations in a Bayesian Analysis of a Small Area Finite Population Proportion'', BIRU, Department of Statistics, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, India, January 16, 2013.

e. ''A Two-fold Bayesian Model for the Analysis of a Small Area Finite Population Proportion'', Department of Statistics, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India, January 17, 2013.

f. ''Assessing Coorrelations in a Bayesian Analysis of a Small Area Finite Population Proportion'', Indian Agricultural Statistical Institute, New Delhi, India, January 19, 2013.

TRIPS TO THE SOUTH KOREA

May 29, 2011 to June 8, 2011 Bal made his second visit to Korea. He visited Yonsie University in Seoul and Kyungpook National University in Taegu. He visited many places in the vicinity of Seoul guided by Hyunjoong and Mijung, and many places in the vicinity of Taegu, guided by Dalo and his students. He also took a two-day bus tour to Wando Island from Seoul, guided by Jai.

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.

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.

My first trip to the Philippines was 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.

FIRST TRIP TO INDIA

SECOND TRIP TO INDIA

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

THIRD TRIP TO INDIA

My third trip to India was to Mumbai, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. I started from Boston, December 28, 2009, and returned to Boston, January 11, 2010. The highlight of my trip was the one-day vacation in Mumbai at the Elephanta Caves in the Arabian sea. The trip on the ship took one hour, we spent about two hours on the island, and on the island we had a lunch of fish curry and rice.

FOURTH TRIP TO INDIA

On my fourth trip to India, December 30, 2012 to January 20, 2013, I visited Delhi, Chennai, Varanasi and Calcutta. I spoke at the the International Indian Statistical Conference in Chennai and the Bayesian meeting in Banaras Hindu University (plenary speaker). I also spoke in the Department of Statistics, University of Calcutta, the Indian Statistical Institute (BIRU), Calcutta, and the Indian Agriculatural Statistics Research Institute, New Delhi. In Delhi I stayed for two nights at the Centaur Hotel in an unpleasant room. For the rest of my one-week continual stay in Delhi, I lived in Hotel Saptagiri which was excellent (Mr. Yadav, the owner, was very friendly). For my four-day trip in Chennai I stayed at the Savera Hotel which was excellent and I enjoyed their breakfast. In Banaras I stayed for six days in Hotel Clarks which was good but with internet problems. In Calcutta I stayed in the Ananya Guest House (Ballygunge Phari, South Calcutta); the two young attendants at the guest house were amusing. I was mostly a guest of Professor Dhiman Bhadra in Calcutta (supported by Professor Kalyan Das of the University of Calcutta). TRIP TO AUSTRALIA

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. TRIPS TO OTHER COUNTRIES

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 Survey Statistics and Methodology (JSSAM)
Associate Editor, Statistical Methodology (StaMet)
Associate Editor, ISRN Probability and Statistics (Open Access)
Associate Editor, Case Studies in Business, Industry and Government Statistics (CSBIGS)
Associate Editor, Journal of Modern Applied Statistical Methods (JMASM)
Associate Editor, Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA - ACS), 2007-2012 (2 terms)
Associate Editor, 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, Discrete Multivariate Data, Nonignorable Missing Data, Computational Methods, Statistical Consulting and Statistical 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