It is our sad duty to inform the glycobiology community that Dr. Subhash Basu passed away on November 14. Please see the obituary thoughtfully provided by Dr. Dipak Banerjee, below.  On behalf of the Society for Glycobiology, we send our deepest condolences to Manju and the rest of Subhash’s family. All who knew him as a friend and colleague in the glycosciences will miss him. 

 Professor Subhash C. Basu, Ph.D., D.Sc.
(May 28, 1938 – November 14, 2021)

The Glycoscience community lost another eminent member on Sunday morning, November 14, 2021. Professor Subhash C. Basu is no longer with us.

Subhash Basu was born in Calcutta, India. After completing his B.Sc. (Chemistry) and M.Sc. (Biochemistry) at Calcutta University, Subhash joined the University of Michigan for graduate studies and earned his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry under the mentorship of late Professor Saul Roseman. After a successful postdoctoral training at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, Subhash joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame in 1970. Following his retirement in 2009, he remained associated with the university as Professor Emeritus.  

Professor Basu has contributed significantly to the advancement of science. Together with students (undergraduate and graduate) and postdocs he has made seminal contributions in glycobiology and in the field of DNA replication. Subhash has been a pioneer in establishing many intricate details of glycolipid biosynthesis, as well as the role of glycosphingolipids in neural development and human diseases.  

During his long scientific career, Subhash received numerous distinctions and awards, including a Helen Hay Whitney Research Fellowship, Doctorate of Science (D.Sc.) degree from Calcutta University, Jacob Javits Neuroscience Research Award (NIH), and NSF-CSIR TOKTEN Visiting Fellow to India.  He was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and inducted as a member of the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars.  He served at the Editorial Board of Glycoconjugate Journal and Current Drug Targets and also as a Treasurer of the Society for Glycobiology. His love for science helped in founding the International Symposium on Eukaryotic Cell Surface Macromolecules (ISCSM) in 1987 in collaboration with late professor Bimal K. Bachhawat. This meeting is held every three years in India and continues to this day. Professor Basu was able to attend the last meeting held in February 17-20, 2020 in Pune, India.

Subhash is survived by his wife Manju, two sons (Sanmit and Rajit), a daughter-in-law (Anjali) and two grandsons (Tejus and Jayan). Subhash will be missed. We pray for his soul to rest in peace.