Tapan Mitra (18 July 1948 – 3 February 2019) was an Indian-born economist.

Life and career

Tapan Mitra was born to parents Ashok and Santi Mitra. He attended St. Xavier's High School, Bombay, and

Rajkumar College, Raipur Rajkumar College (or RKC) in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, is one of the oldest K-12 foundations of India. It was founded by Sir Andrew Fraser in the year 1882 at Jabalpur. The School functioned at Jabalpur till 1892 and thereafter, shifted to its presen ...

. In 1968, Mitra graduated from the

University of Calcutta 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 ...

with a degree in economics. He further studied the subject, completing a master's degree at

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

two years later. Mitra subsequently immigrated to the United States, where he obtained a second master's in economics, followed by a doctorate in the same subject at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

in 1973 and 1975 respectively. He lectured at Rochester while working toward his Ph.D, joining the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a Public university, public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side, Chicago, Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus esta ...

in 1974 as an assistant professor. Mitra moved to the

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

in 1976, where he was later appointed associate professor. He began teaching at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

in 1981 as full professor of economics. In 1997, Mitra was elected a fellow of the

Econometric Society The Econometric Society is an international society of academic economists interested in applying statistical tools to their field. It is an independent organization with no connections to societies of professional mathematicians or statisticians. ...

, and was named the Goldwin Smith Professor of Economics at Cornell in 2007. In 2016, Mitra endowed a set of prizes awarded by the Department of Economics.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitra, Tapan 1948 births 2019 deaths Indian expatriates in the United States Indian expatriate academics 20th-century Indian economists 21st-century Indian economists University of Rochester alumni University of Calcutta alumni Delhi University alumni University of Illinois Chicago faculty Stony Brook University faculty Cornell University faculty Fellows of the Econometric Society Sloan Fellows