Obituary

Dr. Birendra Prasada known to the outside world as a research scientist, telecommunications engineer, professor, and community leader, was simply called, Biru, at home by his parents and older siblings. He excelled at work and served in leadership roles in every organization he was ever involved with. Within the family he was the pragmatist who showered affection on everyone around him. Let us use this space to remember and honour him.

Survived by spouse, Sushma, and son, Sandeep and daughter Charu.

From Charu and Sandeep:

Our father passed away at the Glen hospital in Montreal on September 14. As per his wishes, there will be no funeral. Those who may want to do so can donate to a charity of their choice in his name.

He taught and did research in visual telecommunications at I.I.T. Kanpur, MIT, Bell labs, Bell Northern Research & Nortel. As director of the Canadian Institute for Telecommunications Research (CITR) he coordinated a network of university and industry researchers in visual telecommunications. After retiring in 2002, he became passionately involved in the Kabir Centre, an organization dedicated to sharing arts and culture from the many religions, languages, nationalities and regions of South Asia with the wider Canadian community. In addition to being one of its founders, he served as the organization’s first president and relished learning about film, music, literature and dance after a career dedicated to science. He was a dearly loved husband, and a treasured (and sometimes honorary) father, grandfather, uncle, friend and mentor to many.