Primarily a statistician, Dr. Soubhik Chakraborty is currently a Professor and ex-Head in the department of Mathematics, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. His research interests are algorithm analysis. music analysis and statistical computing. He has guided several research scholars in these areas leading to PhD and authored many books, research monographs and papers in peer reviewed journals. His book Computational Musicology in Hindustani Music, published by Springer in 2014 has been declared as the first book dedicated to the topic by Springer (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-11472-9).
His research paper On Why an Algorithmic Time Complexity Measure can be System Invariant rather than System Independent published in Applied Mathematics and Computation (Elsevier Sc.), Vol. 190(1), 2007, p. 195-204 reflects his hot debate with Prof. Donald E. Knuth (Stanford university). His final views on this debate are available in section 7.2 of his book A Guide to Design and Analysis of Algorithms published by Nova Science publishers Inc., N. Y. in 2023.
Some of his other books worth a mention include Music and Medicine: Healing Brain Injury Through Ragas, CBH pub, 2016 (with Audio CD) which reveals his successful application of Hindustani classical music for speedy recovery of patients with brain injury, achieved with a medical team at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi. He is one of the authors of Signal Analysis of Hindustani Classical Music, Springer, 2017 and the lead author of Hindustani Classical Music: A Historical and Computational Study, Sanctum Books, 2021 (IMTA award winner as the best book on raga music given by Indian Music Therapy Association (IMTA) in 2022).
His books Outliers: Detection and Analysis, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2022 and Statistical Musicology: Embracing Hindustani Ragas, Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2022 and Randomness Revisited Using the V Programming Language, Nova Sc. Inc., 2023 are useful both for academics and the industries alike.
He has been the principal investigators of two major research projects, Analyzing the structure and performance of Hindustani classical music through statistics sponsored by the University Grants Commission and Hindustani Raga Analysis Using Statistical Musicology with Therapeutic Applications for Stress Management sponsored by IDEAS: Technology Innovation Hub @ Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He has published two patents in connection with the second project.
His recent book titled Stress Management Through Music: A Statistical Study, published by Notion Press in 2024 has won the IMTA-NADA award for the best book for the year 2024 for “outstanding contribution to music therapy”.
A life member of Indian Statistical Institute and Acoustical Society of India, he is an acknowledged reviewer associated with ACM, IEEE and AMS having received several awards in teaching and research. A former flutist, he describes himself as “a statistician by profession and a music analyst by choice”.
