Dr. Kasala Subramanyam passed at the residence of his daughter, Mohana, in Odessa, Texas on December 1, 2023. He was 77 years old. His children lost a devoted and caring father. His wife lost a lifetime partner. His friends in his profession lost an immeasurable companion.
Dr. Subramanyam was born in 1946, in Munagamakula Kothuru, Andhra Pradesh, India. Following traditional schooling, he earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Statistics from Sri Venkateswara University, securing top ranking in the final exams. After negotiating a national competitive entrance exam successfully, he was one of two students who were admitted into the Research Course in 1967 as a prelude to the PhD program at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).
It was at the ISI that I met Kasala; I was one year senior to him. He endeared everyone at the Institute by his disarming smile and witticisms. There were many adages concocted by Kasala on the spot relevant to the prevailing environment. His sayings reminded me of The Good Soldier Švejk, Jaroslav Hašek’s creation. His company was lively and there was never a dull moment. The Institute provided intellectual nourishment for us all. Kasala injected camaraderie into everything we research scholars at the Institute did, besides providing intellectual stimulation.
He started working in some aspects of Statistical Inference under the guidance of Professor Jayanta Kumar Ghosh, Indian Statistical Institute and Purdue University. He made notable contributions in Multivariate Calibration with a 1994 paper published in the Annals of Statistics, among others.
Early on, he took up a position at the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. He visited the University of Sheffield at my behest to complete research into his PhD degree. After a stint in Tanzania, he took up a faculty position at the University of Pittsburgh, followed by a move to the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where he remained until retirement. I continued to visit him in the summers on research work. We attended JSM and some IMS meetings for many years together. At the University of North Carolina, he is remembered for his active role in teaching, consulting, and the program in Statistics.
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Written by Marepalli Bhaskara Rao, University of Cincinnati