Nairanjana “Jan” Dasgupta, Ph.D.

A smiling woman with glasses and dark hair.

MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS

Nairanjana (a.k.a. Jan) Dasgupta is a Boeing Distinguished Professor of Science and Mathematics and Professor of Statistics at in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.  She also the Directs of the Data Analytics Program.  She was the founding Director of Center of Interdisciplinary Statistics Education and Research (CISER).  She has been a fellow of American Statistical Association (ASA) since 2018.  She is part of the Advisory Board for Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA).  She is the President Elect for Caucus for Women in Stats (CWS) and chairs the JEDI section for WNAR International Biometric Society.  She is passionate about data literacy for all.

Nairanjana got her BSc (honors, 1990) from Presidency College, Kolkata, MS (1994) and PhD (1996) from University of South Carolina.  Since 1996 she has been at Washington State University as Assistant (1996-2002), Associate (2002-2008) and finally Professor (2008-current). 

Nairanjana’s forte is interdisciplinary research, solving real life problems from other disciplines developing statistical methodology with focus on multiple testing and categorical data.  She is involved with all three areas of faculty life: research, teaching, and service.  Her interest in interdisciplinary research is apparent in her 62 publications. Exposing her students to real-life problems and teaching them how to communicate their solutions has always been her mantra in her classes.  She has served as advisor to 77 graduate students.  She is on the editorial boards of “The American Statistician” and “Journal of Statistical Computations and Simulations”.  She has an active research profile and has been funded by NIST, NSF, NIH and is currently co-PI on two funded grants. Outside work her family keeps her busy.  She is a very involved mother and is active about advocacy for learning disabilities, special education. She enjoys reading, poetry, art and cooking, especially using Indian spices in other cuisines.

Illustration of the Washington state topography.