C R Rao

August 25, 2023

Calyampudi Radhakrishnan Rao, 102, among the world’s most eminent statisticians, died recently in the United States.
He was born on September 10, 1920, in Hadagali, Bellary district in a Telugu family.
He taught and researched at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata.
Rao pioneered several fundamental statistical concepts such as the Cramer–Rao inequality and Rao–Blackwellization theorem and Fisher–Rao metric, concepts that appear in undergraduate textbooks on statistics and econometrics.
He served as chairman of the Committee on Statistics (1962-69), chairman of the Demographic and Communication for Population Control (1968-69), chairman of the Committee on Mathematics, Atomic Energy Commission, AEC (1969-78), member of the Committee on Science and Technology, COST (1969-71).
After his retirement, Rao moved to the United States and worked at several universities.
Former U.S. President George Bush conferred on him the National Medal of Science.
He was awarded India’s highest honours the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan in 1969 and 2001, respectively.