Professor Gopal Krishna Basak, born in Konnagar (Hooghly, West Bengal), is an alumnus of the first batch of ISI’s revamped B.Stat (Hons.) program (1978), MStat (1980). After his PhD from Indiana University, he worked at eminent institutions like UC Berkeley, University of Georgia (Athens), Hong Kong University of Science & Technology and University of Bristol. While his core area is probability theory with notable contributions in degenerate diffusion processes and urn models, he broadened his research interests into finance and economics, with collaboration across disciplines to address questions of societal relevance. A beloved teacher and a student-first Dean at ISI, he is known for soft-spoken clarity, patience, and an uncommon gift for making difficult ideas feel natural.