Dr. A. K. Md. Ehsanes Saleh, professor emeritus and distinguished research professor at Carleton University, passed away peacefully at the age of 91 on September 3, 2023.

Dr. Saleh was a pioneer in the early 60s, being the first Bangladeshi to complete his doctorate in statistics at the newly created graduate program at University of Western Ontario. Subsequently, he joined Carleton University in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, where he established the graduate program in statistics and where he spent his entire career with the exception of 1 year at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC. He worked passionately on a wide range of groundbreaking statistical research, publishing over 300 journal articles and several books in his field for 60 years—right up until the last few weeks of his life. In fact, he completed one last book just 2 weeks prior to his passing.

In his illustrious career, Dr. Saleh held the position of visiting professor at numerous leading academic institutions, including the University of Toronto, Stanford University, MIT, University of California (Berkeley), Michigan State University, Bowling Green State University (as a Eugene Lukacs Distinguished Professor), Kuwait University, and the Kansas University Medical Center (adjunct professor). He was the first Bangladeshi statistician elected as a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. He was also a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Royal Statistical Society, and the Bangladesh Academy of Science, and an honorary member of the Statistical Society of Canada.

Saleh with his gold medals and earliest textbook.

For his landmark contributions to statistical science, he was awarded the Q.M. Hossain Gold Medal in 1992 by the Bangladesh Statistical Association. For his lifetime contributions in statistics, the University of Dhaka, Institute of Statistical Research and Training (ISRT), awarded him with a gold medal. Dr. Saleh was awarded the Islamic Countries Society of Statistical Sciences (ISOSS) Gold Medal twice for being the best researcher in statistical sciences and having the best-selling statistics textbook. He was the first Bangladeshi to receive the prestigious Ogawa Award from the Japan Statistical Society. The Bangladesh Statistical Association and North South University in Dhaka both honoured him by arranging international conferences to recognize his achievements as a trailblazer in his field. He was presented the “Pride of Bangladesh” plaque by the Federation of Bangladeshi Associations of North America (FOBANA) and another from the Canada Bangladesh Muslim Community for outstanding contributions in mathematical statistics. He also received recognition from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) with a certificate of 25 years of excellence for his important research achievements.

Dr. Saleh worked as chief editor of the Journal of Statistical Research for over 2 decades. He organized numerous international conferences and symposia, and was a keynote speaker at many conferences at home and abroad. Among the many textbooks he published are Theory of Preliminary Test and Stein-Type Estimation with Application, An Introduction to Probability and Statistics jointly written with V. K. Rohatgi, Statistical Inference for Models with Multivariate t-Distributed Errors jointly written with M. Arashi and S. M. M. Tabatabaey, and an edited book, Nonparametric Statistics and Related Topics, published by North-Holland. Two new books with Dr. Saleh as lead author, Theory of Ridge Regression Estimation and Rank-based Methods for Shrinkage and Selection, were published by Wiley in 2018 and 2022, respectively.

Dr. Saleh was also dedicated to and delighted in the success of others, mentoring numerous graduate and doctoral students throughout his retirement, even into his 90s. Never forgetting his roots and to further support the development of Bangladeshi students in the field, he established the Shahidara Saleh Trust Fund at the University of Dhaka-ISRT. He also provided scholarships by running a “star search” program that identified talented Bangladeshi students.

Dr. Saleh’s longtime friends and family remember him as a very pious, humble, and selfless man, with unconditional love and faith in his Creator. As such, he was one of the early members of the Ottawa Muslim Association. He was a devoted husband to his wife, Shahidara Saleh, with whom he had a sacred and loving bond for over 7 decades. Indeed, he was a role model, mentor, and an inspiration for his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and for all of the extended family members.

In a tribute to him, his colleagues stated that he will be remembered as a man with high distinction and a broad vision in the area of statistics, bringing recognition to Carleton University, as well as to his home country of Bangladesh. In his leisure time, he loved to play the flute, cook for loved ones and write poetry. Dr. Saleh was beloved by anyone who had the good fortune to meet him. Although there is great sadness for all of us on his passing, we can be joyous about his amazing legacy and a life very well lived!  He is survived by his devoted wife, Shahidara, his beloved daughter and sons, Isme, Resve, and Raihan, his loving grandchildren, Jasmine, Sarah, Malique, and Migel, and his sweet great granddaughters, Anaya and Layla, as well as a wider circle of Saleh and extended family members.

May he rest in peace.

Isme Saleh Alam, Dr. Jasmine Alam, and Dr. Resve Saleh