Sad News: Sukanya Basu

Dear all,

It is with sadness that I write of the tragic death of Sukanya Basu, who was an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department at Vassar from 2010 until 2020. She died in an accident on July 18, 2023 when she fell from a height above Fishkill Creek and drowned. She is survived by her seven-year-old daughter, her mother, sister, and a large extended family.

Professor Basu was a labor economist who used inter-disciplinary approaches to examine immigration, education, development, and health. She taught courses on Probability and Statistics and the Economics of Immigration. After Vassar, she worked as a workforce strategy and analytics consultant at Mercer exploring relationships in data, understanding both practical and academic implications, and communicating with multiple audiences. She lived in Beacon.

Family and friends are invited to gather on Sunday, July 23 from 11 am to 1 pm at Riverview Funeral Home by Halvey, 2 Beekman Street, Beacon. More funeral information, opportunities to share pictures or stories, and an obituary may be found here. A gathering for members of the Vassar community to commemorate Sukanya is being planned for late August; details are forthcoming.

Elizabeth H. Bradley, President
Vassar College
Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
@EHBVassar