Kol boy, now a prof at Stanford, elected Fellow of Royal Society

Kolkata: An alumnus of the Indian Statistical Institute has been elected as the Fellow of Royal Society, UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in existence. Souav Chatterjee, a professor of statistics and mathematics at Stanford University, is among the 59 fellows elected this year by the Royal Society.Chatterjee, who has already received several prestigious awards, including the Infosys Prize in mathematical science (2020), Rollo Davidson Prize (2010), Doeblin Prize (2012), was elected, along with 58 others, for his contribution in mathematics. “They are pioneering scientists and innovators from around the world who have confounded expectations and transformed our thinking,” Adrian Smith, president of the Royal Society wrote on the society’s website.Among the Bengalis, who were elected as Royal Society fellows were Jagadish Chandra Bose (biophysicist), Meghnad Saha (physicist), P C Mahalanobis (statistician), Satyendranath Bose (statistician), Sisir Kumar Mitra (physicist), Asesh Prasad Mitra (ionospheric scientist) and Ashok Sen (physicist).A resident of Naktala, Chatterjee studied at Assembly of God Church, Tollygunge and then went to St James’ School. “I was inspired by my grandfather who would tell me stories about great scientists. Perhaps that had sown the seeds of becoming a scientist in me. I was in love with mathematics and I got dragged deep into it. It was something like solving a puzzle or a detective novel to me always,” Chatterjee told TOI over phone on Wednesday. His father, a former teacher of St James’ School, continued to inspire him. “It is a great moment of pride for us as being elected an FRS is a great achievement. Moreover, he is a wonderful human being,” said Sanghamitra Banerjee, director of ISI, Kolkata. He joined the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata and got his bachelor and master degree from there. Chatterjee moved to Stanford University and did his PhD there under Persi Warren Diaconis — known for his works in the field of randomisation. Chatterjee’s notable works are in multiple areas, including the spin glass, quantum field theory and large deviations theory. “FRS is one of the very prestigious achievements for a scientist. Not many scientists from India have achieved it,” felt noted economist Abhirup Sarkar, former professor at ISI.