An Anil Kumar Gayen Memorial Lecture was held at Vidyasagar University with a very poor presence of the faculties and students of the various academic departments of the varsity.

Strangely, the invitation card, unlike the previous ones, did not mention the serial of this lecture. The First A K Gayen Memorial Lecture was organized in 2014, the second one was held in 2016 and the third in 2017. The A K Gayen Birth Centenary Memorial Lecture was organized in 2019.

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Professor Dipanwita Roy Chowdhury, department of computer science and engineering, IIT- Kharagpur delivered this year’s lecture on 18 March 2024 at the B N Sasmal Hall.

Neither the vice-chancellor nor the registrar was present in the lecture Hall, although the vice-chancellor, Professor Susanta Kumar Chakraborty was supposed to inaugurate the function. Professor Madhumangal Pal of the department of applied mathematics and chairman of the organizing committee mentioned that Dr Abhijit Guha, a former professor of anthropology at VU was instrumental in recovering the lost history about the contributions of A K Gayen towards the foundation of Vidyasagar University during 2012.

Professor A K Gayen(1919-1978) proposed the idea of the establishment of Vidyasagar University in a rural milieu having a substantial number of tribal communities before the UGC in the early 1980s. Gayen’s proposal was accepted by the UGC and later the Vidyasagar University Act was passed in the West Bengal Assembly in 1981 after the untimely demise of Professor Gayen.

Professor Gayen was born in a family with a humble background on 1 February, 1919 in Khejuri, presently in East Midnapore, according to his biography compiled by Mr Swapan Kumar Mandal, assistant headmaster of Kalagechia Jagabandhu Vidyapith, in his book, Khejurir Sekal O Ekal published in 2009.

In 1944, Gayen received his doctorate degree in statistics from Cambridge University and after his return from the UK he joined the Indian Statistical Institute as a faculty in 1954 and later he became a professor of mathematics in IIT-Kharagpur. He was awarded FNA and FSS, London and was also sectional president of statistics in Indian Science Congress in 1971.

During his active academic life at IIT professor Gayen not only conducted original research in mathematics and statistics but also did a number of field surveys in erstwhile undivided Midnapore district on educational potentials and examination reforms funded by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi.

Experiences from these surveys provided professor Gayen a fillip to form a regional education association, a registered society, which took up the herculean task of establishing a university in Midnapore. For six years, before his death on 7 February 1978, Professor Gayen worked hard to fulfil his dream of founding the university in the district, which might have taken a toll on his health.

It was ironic that the contributions of Anil Kumar Gayen towards the establishment of Vidyasagar University were not given due recognition by the makers of the Vidyasagar University Act in 1981. During 2012, the executive council of Vidyasagar University decided to commemorate the contributions of Anil Kumar Gayen in a befitting manner.