In 1980, the National Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences (NRIMS) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research held a highly successful Summer Seminar Series on Extensions of Linear-Quadratic Control Theory. This was followed in February 1981 by one on Applied Multivariate Analysis. The papers presented at that seminar formed the penultimate drafts of those in this book.

The choice of Applied Multivariate Analysis as the topic for the second Summer Seminar Series was prompted by the recognition that there is a much wider divergence between theory and practice of multivariate methods than is the case with univariate statistics. As a result of this, multivariate methods are applied widely, but little understood by their users.

The authors of these papers, apart from having considerable practical experience in the application of the techniques they discuss, have also contributed to their theoretical development. Their papers give a distillation of what they regard as the major features of each topic from the viewpoint of applicability, and so may go some way towards bridging the chasm between theory and practice.

Valuable comments on the first drafts and suggestions for improvements were made by Mr. J.C. Gower (Chapters 4 and 6), Professor J.N. Darroch (Chapter 3) and Professor J. Aitchison (Chapter 1). The generosity of these reviewers in finding time to go through the manuscript is greatly appreciated.