November 2001
Obituary
Debabrata Basu, a renowned mathematician and statistician, died
of Alzheimer's Disease on March 23 in Calcutta, India. He was
76.
Dr. Basu taught statistics at Florida State University from
1975 to 1985 and was designated professor emeritus in 1990.
He began his career in statistical research shortly after leaving
his native Dhaka, Bangladesh, after the partition of India in
1947.
Jayrem Sethuraman, professor of statistics and Robert A. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State, knew Dr. Basu during his school days in Calcutta.
"Professionally he was one of the great names in statistics,
Sethuraman said. 
"He had a very clear and logical way of presenting."
Dr. Basu particularly influenced inference and sampling and could
spontaneously counter conventional statistical theories, he added.
In addition to his professional accomplishments, Dr. Basu
was an "excellent" bridge player and a gardener.
Also professor emeritus at the Indian Statistical Institute,
he had visited approximately a dozen universities in the United
States and had lectured worldwide.
He was a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute.
The Florida State Times is reprinting this story about the death of Dr. Basu, at the request of his daughter, Moni Basu, a 1982 graduate of Florida State, because her father's name was misspelled in the August story. We apologize to the family.
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