The Statistics community lost a luminary with the sad demise of Professor Shoutir Kishore Chatterjee on June 18, 2024, at the age of 89. He leaves behind his son and daughter and two grandchildren, as well as numerous students, friends and admirers. A doyen among Indian statisticians, Professor Chatterjee was associated with the Department of Statistics at Calcutta University (CU) for more than four decades and steered it over a quarter century. He made significant contributions to promote quality and advance excellence in both teaching and research in statistics departments at CU and other Indian universities. He has left an indelible mark in the annals of statistics in India through numerous mentorship efforts and academic engagements. His research contributions in wide areas of statistical inference methods along with their applications and uncanny devotion to foundations have inspired many.

A scholar par excellence, a profound thinker, and a scrupulous researcher, Professor Chatterjee made seminal contributions to Stein-type sequential procedures in the multivariate set-up with nuisance-parameter-free performance. Subsequently, in his early research career, he delved in multivariate non-parametric inference methods, some carried out jointly with the late Professor Pranab Kumar Sen.

His curiosity and ensuing research seamlessly moved into other territories, for example, multivariate non-parametric tests against restricted alternatives; multivariate tolerance sets via density estimation; the estimation of variance components; change detection and semi-sequential tests; variable selection in discrimination problems; and multiple scores in non-parametric testing. Professor Chatterjee took a keen interest in, and contributed to, areas such as general asymmetric factorial experiments in estimation of the optimum point on a response surface.

His lectures inspired successive generations of students to carry on doing research in a number of areas Professor Chatterjee touched upon. He guided and supervised the research work of several scholars towards their PhD degrees —most of whom have earned wide international recognition —in diverse aspects of statistical science including design and analysis of experiments, linear models, non-parametric and sequential inference, and foundation of statistical inference. Professor Chatterjee also energetically extended academic support to others including his colleagues. He was invaluable as a resource of ideas to all who needed some help to move along.

Professor Chatterjee did not shirk administrative responsibility to promote the cause of statistics and its applications in various academic and other professional domains, for example, serving on university-wide committees and groups set up for such purposes. He guided activities of the Calcutta Statistical Association over a long period, serving as its President and as the Editor of the Calcutta Statistical Association Bulletin, a premier journal of excellence, and organizing the Triennial Calcutta Symposia on Probability and Statistics organized by the Association jointly with the Department of Statistics at CU.

Professor Chatterjee visited a number of universities in India and delivered short courses on advanced topics. He was also instrumental in developing a modern curriculum in statistics for both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

An embodiment of rectitude, Professor Chatterjee would appreciate accomplishments of others while remaining silent about his own exemplary achievements. Firm in his convictions, he was always soft-spoken and would gracefully accommodate others’ views. He possessed profound knowledge in philosophy of religion and joined discussions on the subject regularly. Many of his colleagues, students and friends would seek his advice on complex problems in life —professional as well as personal.

Professor Chatterjee authored two books: Statistical Thought: A Perspective and History (2003, Oxford Univ. Press) and Human Development and its Quantification: A Holistic Approach (2009, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University; a preprint version appeared in Chatterjee, 2008, Sankhyā, Ser. B, 70, pp. 157–228).

Professor Chatterjee received many awards and accolades over the years. He presided over the Statistics Section of the Indian Science Congress in 1987, was awarded the UC Distinguished Teacher Award, was selected as a National Lecturer in Statistics by the University Grants Commission during 1986–87, was selected an Emeritus Scientist by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India during 1997–2000. For more details, one may read “A Conversation with Shoutir Kishore Chatterjee” in Statistical Science (2007).

It is next to impossible to enumerate Professor Chatterjee’s lengthy list of virtues. His impact on statistical research and education in India and abroad will be felt in the years to come. Shoutir Kishore Chatterjee will be sadly missed. He shared his wisdom freely. As direct beneficiaries, we all mourn his loss, and we miss him.

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Written by Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherjee,
Retired Centenary Professor of Statistics, University of Calcutta, India