Mizan Rahman (September 16, 1932 – January 5, 2015) was a

Bangladeshi Canadian Bangladeshi Canadians (french: Canadiens Bangladais, bn, কানাডীয় বাংলাদেশী, Kanaḍīyô Bangladeshī) are Canadian citizens of Bangladeshi descent, first-generation Bangladeshi immigrants, or descendants of Ba ...

mathematician and writer. He specialized in fields of mathematics such as hypergeometric series and

orthogonal polynomials In mathematics, an orthogonal polynomial sequence is a family of polynomials such that any two different polynomials in the sequence are orthogonality, orthogonal to each other under some inner product. The most widely used orthogonal polynomial ...

. He also had interests encompassing literature, philosophy, scientific skepticism, freethinking and rationalism. He co-authored ''Basic Hypergeometric Series'' with George Gasper. This book is widely considered as the standard work of choice for that subject of study. He also published ten

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

books.

Education and career

Rahman was born and grew up in

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(nowadays

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

). He studied at the

University of Dhaka The University of Dhaka (also known as Dhaka University, or DU) is a public research university located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is the oldest university in Bangladesh. The university opened its doors to students on July 1st 1921. Currently i ...

, where he obtained his B.Sc degree in Mathematics and Physics in 1953, and his M.Sc in Applied Mathematics in 1954. He received a B.A in Mathematics from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1958, and an M.A. in mathematics from the same university in 1963. He was a senior lecturer at the University of Dhaka from 1958 until 1962. Rahman went to the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Americ ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1962 and received his Ph.D in 1965 with a thesis on the kinetic theory of plasma using singular integral equation techniques. After his Ph.D, he became an assistant professor, later a full professor, at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to serve returning World ...

, where he spent the rest of his career, after his retirement as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus. He unexpectedly died in Ottawa on January 5, 2015 at the age of 82.

Writing and other activities

Apart from his teaching and academic activities, Rahman wrote on various issues, particularly on those related to Bangladesh. He contributed to Internet blogs and various internet e-magazines, mainly in the Bengali language, covering his interests. He was a prolific writer and a regular contributor to Porshi, a Bengali monthly publication based in Silicon Valley, California. He was also the member of the advisory board of the Mukto-Mona, an Internet congregation of freethinkers, rationalists, skeptics, atheists and humanists of mainly Bengali and South Asian descent.

Honors and awards

*Best Teaching Award (1986) *Life-time membership in the Bharat Ganita Parishad (Indian Mathematical Society) *Fellow of th
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">Bangladesh Academy of Sciences">Bangladesh Academy of Sciences
(2002) *Award of Excellence from Bangladesh Publications (Ottawa) (1996)

Books

English * Basic Hypergeometric Series (Coauthor) * Special Functions, q-Series and Related Topics (Coeditor)Special Functions, q-Series and Related Topics, Fields Institute Communications, volume 14, American Mathematical Society, Providence, 1997. * The Little Garden in the Corner (Prose) Bengali *''তীর্থ আমার গ্রাম'' (Tirtha is my village) (1994) *''লাল নদী'' (The Red River) (2001) *''অ্যালবাম'' (Album) (2002) *''প্রসঙ্গ নারী'' (Context - Women) (2002) *''অনন্যা আমার দেশ'' (Ananya is my country) (2004) *''আনন্দ নিকেতন'' (Ananda Niketan) (2006) *''দুর্যোগের পূর্বাভাস'' (Premonition) (2007) *''শুধু মাটি নয়'' (Not just soil) (2009) *''ভাবনার আত্মকথন'' (Autobiography of thought) (2010) *''শূন্য'' (Zero) (2012) *''শূন্য থেকে মহাবিশ্ব'' With Avijit Roy(The universe from zero)(2015)

References

External links

OP-SF NET 22.1, January 2015.
Topic #1: Mizan Rahman 1932-2015 (a short obituary by Martin Muldoon)
A photo album in memory of Mizan Rahman
(maintained by Tom Koornwinder) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rahman, Mizan Canadian mathematicians Bangladeshi humanists Bengali writers University of Dhaka alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge University of New Brunswick alumni Bangladeshi emigrants to Canada 1932 births 2015 deaths Academic staff of Carleton University