Rabindra Nath Bhattacharya (born January 11, 1937) is a mathematician/statistician at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
. He works in the fields of probability theory and theoretical statistics where he has made fundamental contributions to long-standing problems in both areas. Most notable are (1) his solution to the multidimensional rate of convergence problem for the central limit theorem in his Ph.D. thesis
published in the
Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society
The ''Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society'' is a quarterly mathematical journal published by the American Mathematical Society.
Scope
It publishes surveys on contemporary research topics, written at a level accessible to non-experts. I ...
and further elaborated in a research monograph
written jointly with
R. Ranga Rao and (2) the solution of the validity of the formal Edgeworth expansion in collaboration with
J.K. Ghosh in 1978.
He has also contributed significantly to the theory and application of Markov processes, including numerous co-authored papers on problems in groundwater hydrology with Vijay K. Gupta, and in economics with Mukul Majumdar. Most recently his research has focused on nonparametric statistical inference on manifolds and its applications.
He is a co-author of three graduate texts
and four research monographs.
A comprehensive selection of Bhattacharya's work is available in a special 2016 Contemporary Mathematicians volume published by Birkhäuser.
He is married to Bithika Gouri Bhattacharya, with a daughter, a son, and four grandchildren.
Early life and education
Bhattacharya was born January 11, 1937, in his ancestral home Porgola,
Barisal District
Barisal District, officially spelled Barishal District from April 2018, is a district in south-central Bangladesh, formerly called Bakerganj district, established in 1797. Its headquarters are in the city of Barisal, which is also the headquar ...
, in the present country of Bangladesh. He received his
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
and
M.S.
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
degree in 1956 and 1959 respectively from
Presidency College and
Calcutta University. He completed his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
under direction of
Patrick Billingsley at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
in 1967.
Academic career
His first academic position was as assistant professor in the Department of Statistics at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. In 1972, he accepted a position as associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
in Tucson, and was promoted to full professor in 1977. In 1982, he moved to
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
, where he remained until his retirement in 2002. Upon retirement from Indiana University, he was re-appointed as a tenured full professor at the University of Arizona, retiring in May, 2018.
Awards and honors
Bhattacharya has received many awards and honors, including Special Invited Papers in the
Annals of Probability
The ''Annals of Probability'' is a leading peer-reviewed probability journal published by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, which is the main international society for researchers in the areas probability and statistics. The journal was sta ...
(1977) and the
Annals of Applied Probability
'' The Annals of Applied Probability'' is a leading peer-reviewed mathematics journal published by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, which is the main international society for researchers in probability and
statistics. The journal was es ...
(1999). He is a Fellow of the
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts o ...
(1978). In 1988, he and
M. Denker were invited by the German Mathematical Society to give DMV Seminar, Band 14, published by Birkhäuser as ″Asymptotic Statistics″.
He received the prestigious
Humboldt Prize (1993) and the
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
(2000). He also gave an invited talk, now referred to as a Medallion Lecture
at the
IMS Ims is a Norwegian surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Gry Tofte Ims (born 1986), Norwegian footballer
* Rolf Anker Ims (born 1958), Norwegian ecologist
See also
* IMS (disambiguation) Ims is a Norwegian surname. Notable people wit ...
Annual Meeting in Chicago (1996).
References
External links
Bhattacharya's web page at University of Arizona
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharya, Rabi
1937 births
Living people
Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
University of Arizona faculty
University of Chicago alumni
University of Calcutta alumni
Indian statisticians
20th-century Indian mathematicians
Presidency University, Kolkata alumni