Ranjan Roy

Ranjan Roy (1948 - 2020) was an India born American mathematician and a distinguished college teacher of mathematics. He secured his BS degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and his MS in mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He developed his career and spent most of his working years at Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin joining the college in 1982. He became the Ralph C. Huffer Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at the college and at the time of his death was the chair of the Mathematics and Computer Science Department.

Early years
After receiving his PhD at Stony Brook University (NY), Roy taught at the University of Kentucky for a short time and then returned to India where he was first at I.I.T. Delhi and then at Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla. Soon he got a fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Shimla. After spending two years at the institute, he joined  the Mathematics Institute at Punjab University as a Reader. Soon he returned to the US at SUNY Plattsburgh. In 1982, he joined Beloit College and spent the rest of his career there.

Publications
Roy has published many papers on differential equations, fluid mechanics, special functions, Fuchsian groups, and the history of mathematics. He authored three advanced mathematics books: Sources in the Development of Mathematics (2011), Elliptic and Modular Functions from Gauss to Dedekind to Hecke (2017) and the posthumously published Series and Products in the Development of Mathematics (2021) all published by Cambridge University Press. He is a coauthor of the well-known book Special Functions (with G. E. Andrews and R. Askey), published by Cambridge University Press in 1999.

Awards
Roy had earned several recognitions for distinguished mathematics teaching including the following:


 * In 2003, he was one of three professors to receive the Deborah and Franklin Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics, the Mathematical Association of America's (MAA) highest national teaching honor.
 * The MAA Carl B. Allendoerfer Award
 * The MAA Wisconsin Section teaching award

He was twice awarded "Teacher of the Year" honors from Beloit College (1986 & 2000).