It is with heavy hearts that we announce the loss of Anand Acharya (BA R.M.C., MA & PhD Carleton) on March 3rd, 2024. Survived by his loving wife, Kusum, and his two daughters, Nina and Jasmine, his sister, Anjali, his parents, Padma and Jana, as well as numerous friends, and colleagues.
Anand’s enthusiasm, kindness, compassion and intellectual curiosity will be remembered by the Department of Economics. We extend our condolences to his family and friends during this difficult time.
Professor Christopher Worswick, Economics Department Chair, remembers him in his own words:
Anand was a wonderful person who had succeeded in so many areas of his life. He served his country as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force after graduating from RMC. He was also a very successful Air Canada pilot. I remember admitting him into the PhD program and him sheepishly asking if it would be okay to turn down the TAship since he would like to devote the time instead to his studies and research given he would still be flying at least part-time for Air Canada. It was always clear to me that Anand approached research with a perfect attitude – the desire to learn and shed light on important research questions. Another memory I have was meeting Anand, his wife and daughters at the restaurant in the National Arts Centre when I was there with my family. Anand was delighted to see us and I could see the pride he had in introducing his family. Anand clearly lived his life to the fullest, but obviously it ended far too early.
Professor Fanny Demers shares her admiration of Anand:
I am deeply saddened by the passing away of Anand Acharya. Anand took his Ph.D. course in macroeconomics with me. I was immediately impressed by his high intelligence and his outgoing personality. I was even more impressed when I learned that he was an airline pilot (and a Captain in the RCAF). While I did not closely follow his evolution as a very accomplished econometrician during his Ph.D. studies, we remained on very friendly terms during our chance encounters. I often inquired about his projects, and was very happy when he was awarded the Senate Medal, a well-deserved recognition of his superior achievements. When I congratulated him, he responded in his usual unassuming manner that the whole experience had been “a rare privilege” for him. The passing away of such a talented and kind person at a young age is a loss to all of us. May he rest in peace. My sincere condolences to his wife, his children, his parents and his entire family.
Professor Raul Razo-Garcia shares his memory of Anand:
I happily remember my interactions with Anand in the classroom and in the hallways and can definitely say that he was a bright, responsible, meticulous, hard-working and polite student. In the first conversations I had with him, Anand told me about his job at Air Canada and the intercontinental flights he was assigned to. Despite these long flights and his family duties, I was surprised that he had time to read the material before class and that he never missed a class (he never told me, but I guess he came sometimes to class without sleeping or even straight from the airport). Anand was different from most of our PhD students because he was older and he already had a job– the common path for a PhD student in Economics is to start the PhD program in their 20s and eventually get a job. So why on earth did he try to pursue a PhD program when he already had an incredible job? The answer is simple, he had pure intellectual curiosity about economics and research. It was not about a job or money, it was about knowledge….it was about learning. I have enormous respect for Anand for challenging himself in this way. Students like Anand are the ones I always want to see in my classrooms; mainly motivated by curiosity to learn. I feel very lucky as a professor and as a person to have crossed paths with you Anand.
Colleagues and friends of Anand’s, Marcel Voia and Kim Huynh, celebrate Anand with the song “Come Fly with Me!”:
The premature passing of Anand Acharya leaves us with great sadness. Our deepest condolences go to his wife, Kusum, daughters Jasmin and Nina, and other family members. The Frank Sinatra song inspires this memorial and a celebration of Anand’s life. One major impact he had on Marcel was to provide assurance that flying was quite safe. All commercial airline pilots undergo substantial training, and airlines have rigorous safety checks. We never flew with Anand (or at least knew that we did). Anand’s reassuring words eased the anxiety of each flight. We summarize our interactions with Anand as our student, colleague, friend, and teacher.
To read their full memorial: Come Fly With Me – Anand Acharya.
Professor Lynda Khalaf gives praise to Anand’s devotion to his academic pursuits:
I remember when a student, who used to ask so many interesting questions in my “research methods” class, knocked on my office door outside office hours. He apologized for this, asking if I could spare some time because, well, he has a full-time job with a “non-standard” schedule as an Air Canada pilot! This was the first of so many more research meetings, and the beginning of a great collaboration and an enduring friendship. Anand wanted to ask specific questions about weak-instruments, and to discuss his chances of making it through a PhD program despite his “non-standard” full-time job. His reason for pursuing Phd studies were not really career related, just a genuine and deep interest in research, and in pushing his boundaries.
Our route along PhD work and continued research thereafter confirmed his uniqueness in this respect. Between flights, he would work on his simulation design or on the model he was perfecting. I will never forget the day we were going through an old-fashioned paper-work listing of all the health data set that he had at hand so that we could find data on ONE variable that can be considered “exogenous”. And when we did, and we did find only one, both of us were jumping of joy, his natural self-control succeeding more visibly than my Mediterranean one.
I will also never forget how he described his dream-come true presentation in the presence of Sir David Cox. Anand accepted to replace me at that conference, despite all the challenge it represented so early in his academic career. I received an Email from a co-author who was attending the conference to tell me that I had an amazing student who did such an amazing job despite the controversy the topic generated among attendees, while Sir Cox listened with interest. Anand maneuvered as if through an unplanned storm and emerged more research loving and more convinced of his work and objectives.
Work was always like that with Anand; interesting, eventful, challenging and most of all, forward looking. While I strongly prefer to supervise or co-supervise the research of students in areas that I have experience on, I told Anand that he would be my first exception since my experience with modeling duration was very limited. But his enthusiasm was so contagious that I simply could not refuse. We still have joint work in circulation, and I will do all that it takes to see it through the publication process. Publishing daring work takes inner strength and resilience, but most of all, it takes a deep belief in research-driven knowledge. On all this, Anand taught me so much. Anand will be missed, beyond what words can convey.
Colleague Abeer Reza remembers Anand fondly:
I had a pilot friend whose job was to fly once every few weeks to exotic locations and wait for days before returning home, just to wait to fly again. I asked myself, what would I do with the time between flights if I had a job like that, and the answer was — “I would do a PhD in Econ”. Flash forward to an airport where I notice an impressive looking tall handsome brown pilot boarding our plane. Flash forward to the Econ department and ‘hey, I thought that guy was a pilot! OMG, he’s living my dream life!’ That’s how I met Anand.
He was inspiring in so many ways. Always kind, always gentle, always humble, always smiling. And what a beautiful family! As a father of two girls myself, I found so much of what I saw about him worth aspiring towards. He spoke to me of using his training to tackle very practical and real issues related to clinical administration, working with his wife, Kusum. What a brilliant way to tie his skills and his passion and his family life into something directly relevant to improving people’s quality of life. He spoke to me with so much joy about all the wonderful things his daughters were doing. Every time I saw him, I said to myself ‘that guy is doing life right’.
I was very fortunate to have met him recently with colleagues for lunch. He spoke about enjoying life, biking, travelling to meet his daughters to share and celebrate their achievements. He looked happy, and fully absorbed in drinking in the preciousness of each moment.
He will always continue to inspire me. I will miss him deeply.
Anand Acharya’s obituary can be found here. Friends and colleagues are welcome to leave memories of Anand on the site for his family to read. His family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Anand’s name to the Brain Tumor Foundation of Canada.
Find below a selection of Anand’s publications:
- “The Relationship Between Remoteness and Outcomes in Critically Ill Children” (with M. Sample, K. O’Hearn, S. Livingstone, and K. Menon), Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Vol. 18, No. 11 (Nov 2017), pp. 514–520.
- “Comparison of Consent Models in a Randomized Controlled Trial of Hydrocortisone in Pediatric Septic Shock” (with K. Menon, J.D. McNally, K. O’Hearn, H. Wong, M. Lawson, T. Ramsay, L. McIntyre, E. Gilfoyle, D. Wensely, M. Tucci, R. Gottesman, G. Morrison , and K. Choong), Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Vol. 18, No. 11. (Nov 2017), pp. 1009–1018.
- “Cancer Pain with a Neuropathic Component: A Cross-Sectional Study of its Clinical Characteristics, Associated Psychological Distress, Treatments and Predictors at Referral to a Cancer Pain Clinic” (with P. Reis-Pina and P. Lawlor), Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, ePub ahead of print (Sep 2017).
- “A Randomized Controlled Trial of Corticosteroids in Pediatric Septic Shock: A Pilot Feasibility Trial” (with K. Menon, J.D. McNally, K. O’Hearn, H. Wong, M. Lawson, T. Ramsay, L. McIntyre, E. Gilfoyle, D. Wensely, M. Tucci, R. Gottesman, G. Morrison , and K. Choong), Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Vol. 18, No. 6 (Jun 2017), pp. 505–512.