OBITUARY: Adhip Chaudhuri (1951-2014).
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Former Georgetown University professor and renowned economist Adhip Chaudhuri succumbed to complications from lung disease on Monday, passing away at the age of 62.
Born in 1951 in Ghaziapur, Uttar Pradesh, he was the youngest of four children. He graduated from Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission High School in 1967 with high honors, then went on to St. Stephen’s College at Delhi University. He graduated from there in 1970 with honors in economics. He then studied at the Delhi School of Economics and Columbia University, the latter at which he earned his Ph.D. in economics.
His dissertation was entitled “Envy, Distributive Justice, and Social Choice,†his advisors for which were two Nobel Prize-winning economists: William Vickery and Edmund Phelps.
Chaudhuri began working at Georgetown University in 1979, and was there until just a few years ago. According to his staff page at the institution’s website, Chaudhari was an assistant professor in the school’s Department of Economics whose “areas of expertise include: welfare economics, international economics, history of economic thought.â€
He taught several levels of economic courses at the prestigious university, from 200 to 400-level classes. Courses he taught included International Trade, Multinational Corporations, Economics of the Middle East, and Ethical Issues of Global Trade.
Over the course of his career, Chaudhuri taught and guest-lectured in Doha, Hanoi, and Vienna, among other places. A skilled player of tennis and bridge during his life, he was also published in several prominent economic journals.
Chaudhuri is survived by his wife, Joanne Kinney Smyth, as well as his children Maya and Neil. He also has two ex-wives, Margaret McBride and Una Chauduri, and has two siblings, Pradib and Shibani, the latter of whom resides in Kolkata, India.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com