IIAS 2024 conference in Kochi [27-31 Dec]

Tanuka Chattopadhyay (26 Jan 1963 – 16 Oct 2023)

Most sadly, I learned today that applied mathematics Professor Tanuka Chattopadhyay, from the University of Calcutta, had passed away last month. We had been briefly collaborating after I met her and her husband Asis Chattopadhyay, also Professor of Statistics at the University of Calcutta, following a Franco-Indian workshop in Bangalore. Discussing research directions in astrostatistics in Kolkata and later in Paris, when they visited. We had not been in touch for a few years and I was not aware she was severely ill. Dedicated researcher and mentor, as well as contributing to the administration of the University in many ways, she was versed in classical Indian culture and I will keep the memory of our conversations, esp. the one on New Year’s Ewe in Kolkata.

What follows is an obituary written by Professor Ajit Kembhavi.

Professor Tanuka Chattopadhyay (née Kanjilal), a member of the Astronomical Society of India, passed away on October 16th this year, at the age of 60, after a long and heroic battle with cancer.  She was a Professor in  the Department of Applied Mathematics of the University of Calcutta.  She  has been Head of the Department and Dean, Faculty of Science, Calcutta University. At her demise she was  Director, Center for Research in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the University.

Tanuka was from  an early age very interested in mathematics. To take that interest further, she joined Presidency College, Kolkata from where she completed her degree  in  Mathematics with  Honours in 1983. For post graduate studies she joined the Department of Applied Mathematics  where she got interested in Astrophysics. She later worked for a  Ph.D. under the supervision of Professor Baidyanath Basu on Explosion in the central region of the Galaxy, the consequent star formation, formation of molecular clouds and structure of shocks.

Over the years Tanuka worked on a variety of topics. Her earliest  papers were on  squalls, thunderstorms and convective instability.  From these terrestrial considerations her interest soon shifted to molecular clouds, star formation and density waves in the Galaxy. In later years she worked on globular clusters, galaxies with special interest in dwarf and ultra-compact galaxies, Gamma-ray bursts, statistical simulation and computation.  In much of her work she used advanced statistical methods to get the most out of available astronomical data.  She has published about 50 papers in international journals, and written four books,  including Statistical Methods for Astronomical Data Analysis written with her husband Professor Asis Kumar Chattopadhyay, published by Springer and awarded an outstanding publication award in Astrostatistics  by the International Astrostatistics Association. Tanuka successfully completed several national and international funded projects and was a frequent visitor to several leading universities in Canada, France and the USA, where she had long collaborations.  She  supervised a number of Ph.D.  students and was a respected teacher and mentor.

Tanuka was a Visiting Associate of IUCAA, Pune from 2002 until she passed away. I met her during her first visits to IUCAA, and  we soon became friends and collaborators.  We were later joined by her husband Asis Chattopadhyay,  who is a Professor at the Department of Statistics in the University of Calcutta and was a Pro-Vice Chancellor and Acting Vice Chancellor of the University.  Asis soon became a Visiting Associate of IUCAA and the three of us organised a number of workshops in Kolkata and other places on statistical methods and their application to the analysis of astronomical data.  Tanuka was a Fellow of West Bengal Academy of Science and member of several organisations including  the  International Astronomical Union (IAU), Astronomical Society of India, and the International Astrostatistics Association.

Using funds obtained under the DST PURSE programme, Tanuka obtained a 14” optical telescope.  This was installed in 2015 on the terrace of a building in Rajabazar College and was used  for sky watching, as well as carrying our research projects,  by students of the Department of Applied Mathematics and other departments of the University. She was also planning to start an outreach programme for school children in Kolkata.  Making the telescope available was an exemplary initiative from a person who was a mathematician and a theoretical astrophysicist.

In spite of her illness, which stretched over several years, Tanuka remained brave, cheerful and full of spirit, and continued to work very hard.  A few months ago, she, Dipankar Banerjee and I were speakers at a meeting celebrating the birth centenary of Professor M. K. Dasgupta.  It was impossible for me to then  believe that the dynamic speaker was gravely ill, with further treatment not really possible.  She talked to me about a visit to IUCAA in December and I was sure she would really come.  But about five weeks after the event, she had to be admitted to hospital one night, after having spent the evening attending a meeting in the Vice-Chancellor’s office.  She did not return.

Tanuka  had many interests outside astrophysics.  She wrote two Bengali novels  Bibashan and Gandhari Santoti.  She was  completing her first English novel when she passed away, which her family hopes to publish posthumously. She had an artistic nature, had formal training in music and dance and was greatly interested in  travel and culture. She was a wonderful wife, mother and mother-in-law,  a great hostess and beloved friend, and respected guide and mentor to many.  She will be greatly missed.

Ajit Kembhavi
IUCAA and Pune Knowledge Cluster

Natural statistical science [#1]

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (1920-2023)

Just heard that C.R. Rao had passed away on Wednesday. Above is a 1941 picture I photographed while attending the jubilee of the Department of Statistics of the University of Calcuta. Showing R.A. Fisher and P.C. Mahalanobis surrounded by faculty and students from the Department. Including a very young Rao who would a few years later go to Cambridge and write a PhD thesis on ANOVA under the supervision of R.A. Fisher. While my own interactions with C.R. Rao have been quite limited, from attending a seminar dinner with him when he visited Purdue University in 1988, to writing a critical assessment of Pitman nearness that he reportedly disliked, to writing chapters in some of the handbooks he edited and a review paper on Rao-Blackwellisation for the International Statistical Review special issue for his 100th birthday (which almost coincided with mine, one day off), he stood as a giant of the field, having impacted statistics and beyond in many and profound ways. The Hindu published an obituary immediately after his death, while Current Science has a longer if older biography full of pictures and Significance a series of articles on “C.R. Rao’s Century”. However, I’d like to recall this quote of his’, acknowledging his mother for his work habits.

‘For instilling in me the quest for knowledge, I owe to my mother, A. Laxmikanthamma, who, in my younger days, woke me up every day at four in the morning and lit the oil lamp for me to study in the quiet hours of the morning when the mind is fresh.’

a journal of the plague, sword, and famine year

Read over the last week of 2022 and in the plane to India, three books by Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor and both volumes of The Cemeteries of Amalo. While the steampunk side is very light, the universe is rather well-conceived and the stories compelling, esp. the duology that follows a priest able to connect with recently deceased people, towards seeking murderers or scone recipes. Too much introspection and self-pity, too many descriptions of itineraries in an imaginary city, unnecessarily complicated names, but pleasant nonetheless, with a fascination with (imaginary) teas and tea-houses. I also read All the Horses of Iceland, which turned out to be an historical novel on an early Icelander’s trip to Mongolia and his bringing home the ancestors of the famed horses of Iceland. Very well-written and full of historical tidbits.

While visiting Ivan Vautier’s restaurant in Caen with a scallop menu was a continuation of a family (almost) tradition, I cooked very little over the period except for making my own garam masala from spices I bought in India. Put to use in weekly fish curries. I also tried to bake dosa (ದೋಸೆ), this very thin rice-flour crêpe ubiquitous in South India, but it ended up closer to a galette!

Watched most of The Good Detective, a rather conventional Korean TV series (meaning the same police stations, endless shots of police stations from outside, post-work dinner parties, intricate blackmail situations, widespread corruption, massive conflicts of interest, as in series earlier watched). But enough originality to keep me interested. And second-watched Belfast in the plane to India, a black-and-white film by Kenneth Branagh, focusing on a Protestant family during “The Troubles” and sounding (!) rather engaging, if possibly soppy (as sound was off).