The AACL Executive Committee mourns the passing of Professor Pushpak Bhattacharyya, our esteemed former Executive Committee member and 2016 ACL President, who left us on October 5th, 2025.
As ACL President and AACL Executive Committee member, Pushpak provided visionary leadership that expanded our global reach while maintaining the scientific rigor of our community. His pioneering research at IIT Bombay laid foundations for computational linguistics (CL) and natural language processing (NLP) in India and across Asia, particularly in machine translation and computational semantics for resource-scarce languages.
Beyond his scholarly achievements, Pushpak will be remembered as a distinguished mentor. His legacy lives on through the countless researchers he inspired and CL/NLP community he served and contributed to. His passing is a huge loss for the CL/NLP community!
We extend our deepest condolences to his family, colleagues at IIT Bombay, and all who were touched by his wisdom and generosity. His contributions to our field and organization will endure.
AACL Executive Committee