C R Rao, a prominent Indian-American mathematician and statistician, will receive the 2023 International Prize in Statistic

 

C R Rao, a prominent Indian-American mathematician and statistician, will receive the 2023 International Prize in Statistics, the equivalent to the Nobel Prize in the field, for his monumental work 75 years ago that revolutionised statistical thinking.

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, FRS retired at the age of sixty and went to live with his daughter in America along with his grandchildren.

There, at the age of 62, he became a professor of statistics at the University of Pittsburgh and at the age of 70, he became the head of the department at the University of Pennsylvania.

US citizenship at the age of 75. National Medal For Science at the age of 82, a White House honor.

Today, at the age of 102, he received the International Prize in Statistics.

Among his best-known discoveries are the Cramér–Rao bound and the Rao–Blackwell theorem both related to the quality of estimators. Other areas he worked in include multivariate analysis, estimation theory, and differential geometry. His other contributions include the Fisher–Rao theorem, Rao distance, and orthogonal arrays. He is the author of 14 books and has published over 400 journal publications.

Rao has received 38 honorary doctoral degrees from universities in 19 countries around the world and numerous awards and medals for his contributions to statistics and science. He is a member of eight National Academies in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Italy. Rao was awarded the United States National Medal of Science, that nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in fields of scientific research, in June 2002. He was given the India Science Award in 2010, the highest honor conferred by the government of India in a scientific domain. In 2013, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Miodrag Lovric (Editor) and Shlomo Sawilowsky, for their contribution to the International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science. He was most recently honoured with his 38th honorary doctorate by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, on 26 July 2014 for "his contributions to the foundations of modern statistics through the introduction of concepts such as Cramér–Rao inequality, Rao–Blackwellization, Rao distance, Rao measure, and for introducing the idea of orthogonal arrays for the industry to design high-quality products."

He was the President of the International Statistical Institute, Institute of Mathematical Statistics (USA), and the International Biometric Society.

In India, the government has already honored him with Padma Bhushan (1968) and Padma Vibhushan (2001)

At the age of 102, receiving a Global award while in good physical condition is exemplary