Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao better known as C.R. Rao passed away on Wednesday, 18 days short of turning 103. According to his students and peers, he passed away in Buffalo, New York. He was awarded the International Prize in Statistics this year.
Tributes poured in from his peers, friends, family and a grateful nation for his immense contribution in the fields of mathematics and statistics. His contribution to India’s statistics can be estimated from his long association with the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Kolkata where he joined in 1943. During his stint at the ISI the courses he taught were converted into bachelor and masters programmes.
The University of Buffalo in its home page called Mr. Rao ‘a rockstar’ in the field of statistics. “Dubbed ‘a living legend’ of statistics, he brought nine decades worth of knowledge to UB in 2010, when he was named a research professor in the Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Health Professions,” says the university website.
Telangana Governor Tamilisai Sounderarajan wrote: “Deeply shocked to know about the passing away of eminent Indian-American scientist Dr. C. R. Rao… His monumental work in statistics will continue to enormously impact the discipline of statistics and varied other disciplines…”
Member of Niti Aayog V. K. Saraswat mourned the loss of the scientist.
Among his many contributions to the field, Mr. Rao is known for the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound and the Rao-Blackwell Theorem and many other results. A decade earlier, in 2013 he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize along with Miodrag Lovric and Shlomo Sawilowsky for their contribution to International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science.
Born on September 10, 1920, he completed his initial education in Gudur, Nuzvid, Nandigama in present day Andhra Pradesh. He was the eight child in his family and hence was named Radhakrishna.
He completed his education at the Mrs. AVN College, Visakhapatnam, and then at the Andhra University. In 1943, he completed his M.A. in statistics from the Calcutta University before heading to King’s College Cambridge University where he worked under Ronald Fisher.