Renowned Indian Mathematician C.R Rao passes away in America

A renowned Indian mathematician Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, commonly known as CR Rao, has passed away at the age of 102. He breathed his last on Wednesday (August 23) while residing in America. CR Rao was a globally recognized mathematician who made significant contributions to the field of statistics.

Throughout his career, CR Rao received numerous prestigious awards for his services in mathematics and statistics. The Government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan in 1968 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2001, as well as the NS Bhatnagar Award. In 2002, he was awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific honour in the United States, by then-President George Bush. This year, he was also awarded the International Prize in Statistics, which is considered equivalent to the Nobel Prize in Statistics. CR Rao was recognized for his research paper published in the Calcutta Mathematical Society in 1945. The International Prize in Statistics Foundation praised his work, stating that it continues to have a profound influence on science.

CR Rao was born on September 10, 1920, in a Telugu family in Hadagali, Bellary district, Andhra Pradesh. He pursued his education in various places in Andhra Pradesh, including Gudur, Nuzividu and Nandigama. He completed his M.Sc in Mathematics from Andhra University and later obtained an MA in Statistics from the University of Kolkata.

In 1948, he received his Ph.D from Cambridge University. He began his career at the Indian Statistical Institute and eventually became its director. After retiring, he settled in the United States and worked as a research professor at the University of Buffalo. CR Rao received 39 honorary doctorates from 19 countries and published 477 research papers. He also authored 15 books during his lifetime.

CR Rao's research encompassed various significant contributions to the field of statistics by doing research on Cramer-Rao lower bound, Rao-Blackwell theorem, Development of the interdisciplinary field of information geometry

CR Rao's contributions were not limited to the field of statistics alone. His services were widely recognized and utilised in various other fields such as economics, genetics, and anthropology. He was the founder of the CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science in Hyderabad, which further highlights his influence and impact beyond statistics.