Qazi Motahar Hossain (30 July 1897 – 9 October 1981) was a Bangladeshi writer, scientist, statistician, chess player, and journalist.

On several occasions, he vocally criticized Pakistani government policies, most importantly on the state language question.

His family had arrived in Mughal Bengal from Western Asia during the reign of Shah Jahangir, his ancestors were designated as the judges of the court of Delhi, hence the name of the clan is "Qazi.

During his time in Kushtia, Hossain, coming from a household with lesser income, supported himself by various scholarships, lodged at nearby homes as house tutors and later settled at a hostel.

During his years at the school, Jyotindranath Roy, an accomplished teacher of Mathematics and Sciences, laid Hossain's foundation in algebra, geometry, conic section and mechanics.

[2] After passing entrance, already his interest in Science and Mathematics confirmed, Hossain went to Presidency College in Kolkata for I Sc.

In 1921, the University of Dhaka, was founded, where Hossain would spend the rest of his life, serving various roles; that year, Hossain, still a student of M A at Dhaka College, preparing for final exams, joined the newly founded university as demonstrator (junior lecturer) of physics.

[2] Bose, now head of the department of physics, encouraged Hossain to pursue higher study in statistics, a subject only getting its foothold in India, under premier Indian statistician, Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis.

While at Indian Statistical Institute, Hossain learned about balanced incomplete block design, and then endeavoured a thesis, under informal supervision of Bose, who was working on related topics then: counting possibility of certain balanced incomplete block design configurations by trial method.

[citation needed] Hossain founded the Institute of Statistical Research and Training (ISRT), University of Dhaka, in 1964, and served as founder-director until 1966.

Though unpopular among the masses, the Shikha group proved to be distinctively liberal and radical: they even went as far as criticizing the Caliphate system, a very unusual and bold feat during that time.

A collection of his eighteen biographical essays was published in 2004 under the title Smritikatha by Qazi Motahar Hossain Foundation.