Professor Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao

Statistics has application in all aspects of subjects irrespective of science, commerce or management. A highly respected Statistics and one of the living legend in Statistics is Professor Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao or popularly known as C. R. Rao. His works have not only influenced Statistics but also influenced the fields of Economics, National Planning, Geology, Genetics, Anthropology and many more. The Times of India listed Dr Rao as the one among the top ten Indian scientists which India has produced.

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao was born in a small place Hadagali in the Bellary district of Karnataka. Rao received master’s degrees both in Statistics and Mathematics. He received M. Sc. in Mathematics from Andhra University and M. Sc. in Statistics from Calcutta University in 1943. In 1948, he acquired Ph. D. degree from Cambridge University under the guidance of R A Fisher. He started his career at Indian Statistical Institute and served the same for the forty years retiring as the director of Indian Statistical Institute. Rao introduced many advanced courses and training programs in the curriculum of ISI during his tenure as the director.

Dr Rao has thirty honorary doctorate degrees to his credit from the universities of seventeen countries all over the globe. He is on the board of all most all the high level committees related to Statistics. His best known discoveries are Cramer-Rao bound and Rao-Blackwell theorems related to the quality of estimators. He has worked closely contributing to many areas of mathematics and statistics such as Multivariate Statistics, Estimation Theory, Statistical Inference and linear models, combinatorial design, biometry, statistical genetics, generalized matrix inverses, functional equations and orthogonal arrays. He has more than 400 publications in referred journals and published fourteen books.

Some of the awards conferred on him for phenomenal work he has done in Statistics are Guy Medal in Gold (2011) of the Royal Statistical Society, India Science Award 2010 (the highest award in scientific field presented by government of India), International Mahalanobis Prize (2003) of the International Statistical Institute, Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal (2003) of the Indian National Science Academy, National Award of Science in the year 2002, Padma Vibhushan (2001) by the Government of India, Mahalanobis Centenary Gold Medal of the Indian Science Congress, Wilks Memorial Award (1989) of the American Statistical Association, Meghanadha Saha Medal (1969) of the Indian National Science Academy, Guy Medal in Silver (1965) of the Royal Statistical Society, S. S. Bhatnagar Award (1963) of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, JC Bose Gold Medal of the Bose Institute, Gold Medal of the University of Calcutta and many more.

US government has honored with National Medal of Science for his pioneering contributions to the foundations of statistical theory and multivariate statistical methodology and their applications, enriching the physical, biological, mathematical, economic and engineering sciences. Dr Rao is working as the visiting professor in many of the universities including Pennsylvania State University, University of Buffalo. Pennsylvania State University has established C R Rao and Bhagawathi Rao prizes in Statistics in his honor. Also, C R Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science is established in India in his honor.