Jyotiprasad Medhi was a professor of statistics at

Gauhati University Gauhati University, also known as GU, is a Collegiate university, collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assem ...

and

Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is a department within the Ministry of Science and Technology in India. It was established in May 1971 to promote new areas of science and technology and to play the role of a nodal department fo ...

Work and education

Medhi started his schooling in

Dibrugarh Dibrugarh (pron: ˌdɪbru:ˈgɑ:) is an industrial city in Upper Assam with sprawling tea gardens. It is located 435 kms East from the state capital of Dispur. It serves as the headquarters of Dibrugarh district in the state of Assam i ...

and in 1940 he passed matriculation from Dibrugarh Government High School. After matriculation, he did his graduate studies in Cotton College in 1946 and was a gold medalist in BSc with Honours in mathematics. There he received the Sudmerson Gold Medal and Rajanikant Barat Gold Medal. Medhi did his MSc in Pure Mathematics from

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

, and got the Debendra Nath Gangopadhaya Gold medal for record marks obtained and the Post graduate First class first gold medal in 1948. In 1952, he took a loan of ten thousand rupees from Govt of Assam and moved to England to pursue Master of Statistics (MStat) from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

and completed in 1954. He worked with M S Bartlett in the

in 1955 on the topic '

Time Series In mathematics, a time series is a series of data points indexed (or listed or graphed) in time order. Most commonly, a time series is a sequence taken at successive equally spaced points in time. Thus it is a sequence of discrete-time data. Ex ...

Analysis'. Thereon Medhi moved to France to study for his DSc in the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

in 1956 under the supervision of Robert Fortet. He had also taken a diploma in French Language with mention 'Honorable'. Its worthy to mention that he had written his doctoral thesis in French Language. Medhi joined as a lecturer of statistics at

Cotton University Cotton University (formerly known as ''Cotton College'') is a public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established in 2017 by the provisions of an Act from the Assam Legislative Assembly which merged Cotton College Sta ...

erstwhile Cotton College in 1948. However, in the same year Gauhati University was established and he was invited to work as

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

. Accepting the invitation, he joined the Department of Mathematics and Statistics as a lecturer. In between his tenure, he had taken MS degree from England and DSc from Paris. Medhi returned to

where he became a professor and was the head of the department of statistics till he retired in 1985. Earlier in Gauhati University, both mathematics and statistics were in a common department, however, under the able leadership of Prof Medhi, statistics became a full-fledged individual department. In 1987, two years after retirement, he was entitled the honour of

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the same university and remained so until his death in 2017. Under his guidance, several students got doctoral degrees and Tata Subba Rao is the first among them. From Southern India, Subba Rao had come to Assam to pursue his research under Prof Medhi and later he had joined

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

as a Professor. In 1979, he established the 'Population Research Centre' and served as a director. He played a prominent role in shaping the newly formed Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology, Assam, IASST by serving as director.

Publications

Medhi published many articles in peer reviewed international and national journals. He also published two books on stochastic processes each with over 500 citations.

Awards and honours

The J Medhi memorial lecture is annually held in the

Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati) is a public technical university established by the Government of India, located in Amingaon area, North Guwahati city, in the state of Assam in India. It is the sixth Indian Institute ...

at the Department of Mathematics. In 2016, Medhi was conferred an Honorary

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

DSc DSC may refer to: Academia * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dalton State Col ...

Tezpur University Tezpur University is a Central University located in Tezpur in the North-Eastern state of Assam, India, established by an act of Parliament, in 1994. History The establishment of Tezpur University is considered to be one of the outcomes of t ...

References

{{Improve categories, date=August 2020 1924 births Indian statisticians People from Assam 2017 deaths Gauhati University faculty University of Paris alumni Alumni of the University of Manchester Queueing theory Stochastic processes