Dr. Shanti Swarup Gupta died on January 11, 2002, after a brief illness.

He was born in Saunasi, Mainpuri, India, on January 25, 1925. After completing a master's degree in mathematics at the University of Delhi and  several years of teaching there, he came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar in 1953. He received a doctorate in statistics from the University  of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1956 and subsequently worked in statistics research at Bell Labs in Allentown, PA.

Dr. Gupta held teaching positions at the University of Alberta and the Courant Institute, New York University, as well as visiting appointments at Stanford University, the University of California-Berkeley, and the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany.

In 1968 he founded the Purdue University Department of Statistics and served as department head until 1995. During this period and up to his illness, he was engaged in research and teaching. He was a Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Purdue University from 1962 until his death.

His honors include Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the American Statistical Association, of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, as well as Erskine Fellow of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, Honorary Fellow of the Indian Statistical Association, Special Chair in Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.

He was president of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference. He was a prominent scholar in the area of statistical ranking and selection. He was the author of more than 200 published articles and books and was the major advisor to 30 doctoral students.

Surviving are his wife Marianne Heinicke Gupta, 104 Tecumseh Park Court, West Lafayette, IN, 47906, and their daughter Maya Gupta of Athens, GA.

There will be a memorial tribute in Professor Gupta's honor on March 2, 2002. The details are as follows:

March 2, 2002, Memorial Tribute and Reception for Shanti Gupta

Krannert Drawing Room
3:00 - 3:45 pm Memorial Tribute
3:45 - 4:30 pm Reception

The family has requested that in lieu of flowers donations go to the

Purdue Foundation,
c/o the Shanti S. Gupta Fund,
West Lafayette, IN 47907.

Maya and Marianne Gupta sincerely thank all of you, who have sent cards and messages of sympathy. We are deeply touched by the fact that you hold Shanti in your memory and have taken the time to let us know that. We wish we could shake the hand of each of youto express our warmest appreciation.

Marianne and Maya

January 31, 2002