Page 619 - Probability and Statistical Inference

596 14. Appendix

moved to Calcutta in 1948.
In 1950, Basu enrolled as the first research scholar under the guidance of
C. R. Rao in Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and completed his Ph.D. thesis
within two years. In 1953, he went to University of California, Berkeley, on a
Fulbright fellowship where he came in close contact with Jerzy Neyman. In
1955, when R. A. Fisher visited ISI, Basu got the first-hand taste of Fisherian
inference. With his uncanny ability to produce counter-examples, quite often
spontaneously, Basu started raising fundamental philosophical issues. He felt
uncomfortable with Fisherian doctrine as well as the Neyman-Pearsonian ap-
proach. Eventually, he became an ardent Bayesian. He vigorously gave voice
to the staunchest criticisms of many frequentist ideas.
Basu always gave inspiring lectures. He travelled extensively all over the
world. During 1976-1986, he remained as a professor in the department of
statistics in Florida State University, Tallahassee. Currently, he is a Professor
Emeritus in ISI and Florida State University.
Basu is an elected Fellow of both the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
and the American Statistical Association. He is highly regarded for his pen-
etrating essays on the foundations of statistical inference. Ghosh (1988) ed-
ited a special volume containing most of Basu’s critical essays on Statistical
Information and Likelihood. He also made fundamental contributions on in-
ferences for finite population sampling. A Festschrift volume, Current Issues
in Statistical Inference: Essays in Honor of D. Basu, was presented to him on
th
his 65 birthday. This special volume was edited by Ghosh and Pathak (1992).
Basu’s article about himself, Learning from Counterexamples: At the In-
dian Statistical Institute in the Early Fifties, was included in Ghosh et al.
(1992). It mentions many interesting stories and encounters with Fisher,
Neyman, Wald and Rao. Basu has been a dedicated bridge player and he loves
gardening. Unfortunately, his health has been failing for sometime.
D. Blackwell: David Blackwell was born on April 24, 1919, in Centralia,
Illinois. He got into the University of Illinois and received the A.B. (1938),
A.M. (1939), and Ph.D. (1941) degrees, all in mathematics.
Blackwell entered college to become an elementary school teacher. He
came in contact with J. L. Doob at the University of Illinois. Blackwell wrote
his Ph.D. thesis under the guidance of Doob, but the thesis topic was neither
in the area of statistics nor probability.
After receiving the Ph.D. degree in mathematics, Blackwell was not sure
whether he would be interested in statistics. According to his own admis-
sion [DeGroot (1986a)], during the period 1941-1944, it was very hard for
him to land a suitable job. He accepted a faculty position in mathematics at