Mir Masoom Ali, Ph.D.
George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Statistics

Dr. Mir Masoom Ali, George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Statistics and Professor of Mathematical Sciences, joined the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana in 1969 after completing his doctoral work at the University of Toronto. Dr. Ali was born in Patuakhali in Bangladesh on February 1, 1937. He is the second son of the Late Mir Muazzam Ali, who was a lawyer in Patuakhali and Mrs. Azifa Ali. Dr. Ali matriculated from Patuakhali Jubilee High English School in 1951 and then obtained his I.Sc. degree from Dhaka College in 1953. He then obtained his B.Sc (Honours) degree in 1956 and M.Sc. degree in 1957, both in Statistics, from the Dhaka University. He came to the University of Toronto, Canada on leave of absence from the Government of Pakistan in 1966 for graduate studies and obtained a second Master’s degree in 1967 and Ph.D. degree in 1969, both in Mathematical Statistics. Prior to coming to the United States in 1969 Dr. Ali served in various statistical positions with the Government of Pakistan since 1958 and for a brief period in 1957 he worked for the Socio-Economic Survey Board of the University of Dhaka.

Dr. Ali is the director of the graduate program in statistics at Ball State University, which he had founded in 1971. In recognition of his excellence in teaching, research and professional service, Dr. Ali received the 1992-93 Outstanding Faculty Award and the 1985 Outstanding Researcher Award from Ball State University. The Ball State University student newspaper Daily News named him Teacher of the Week in 1997. In 1990, the Bangladesh Statistical Association awarded him the first Qazi Motahar Husain Gold Medal for his outstanding contributions in the field of statistics. He was also awarded the Meritorious Service Awards in 1987, 1997 and 2002 by the Midwest Biopharmaceutical Statistics Workshop, which is co-sponsored by the American Statistical Association, for his role as a co-founder, program co-chair and local arrangements chair.

In 2002, Professor Ali was awarded the Sagamore of the Wabash Award, which is the highest civilian award given by the governor of the State of Indiana.

The thrust of Dr. Ali’s research has been in the areas of finite sampling, statistical inference and order statistics. He has published over one hundred papers and about 150 article and book reviews in leading statistical journals. He has also presented over one hundred invited and contributed papers at professional meetings and universities in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Holland, Egypt, Sweden, France, Italy, Morocco, Turkey, Korea, Portugal and Japan.

Dr. Ali is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association, which is the largest statistical association in the world; the Royal Statistical Society, England, and the Institute of Statisticians, England . He is also an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and a member of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Bangladesh Statistical Association. He is the founding president of the North America Bangladesh Statistical Association. Dr. Ali serves as an editor for two international statistical journals published from Dhaka, as associate editor of two journals from India, one journal from Pakistan, one journal from Dhaka and one from Korea. Professor Ali held several offices in the American Statistical Association. He also held visiting appointments at a number of universities and statistical institutes in Canada, United States, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, India, Korea, and Japan.

Dr. Ali’s wife, Firoza (Leena) Ali hails from Rangpur in Bangladesh. She is a psychologist (with specialization in behavior modification) and works as an independent consultant in the State of Indiana. Their oldest daughter is a vice president of Planned Parenthood in Chicago. The second daughter is a professor of criminal justice and the third daughter returned to university to further her graduate education after serving in a financial institution as an assistant vice president. Their son, who is the youngest among the siblings, is a medical doctor, now residing in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. and Mrs. Ali live in Muncie, Indiana. They have five grandchildren from their three elder daughters.