Noted Indian-American statistician Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, fondly called CR Rao, passed away in the US on Wednesday, 23 August.
He was 102, and would have turned 103 next month.
He was born on 10 September, 1920, into a Telugu family in Hadagali, in what is now the Ballari district of Karnataka, which was then a part of the composite Madras state.
Also read: Senior journalist, political analyst Krishna Rao passes away
A glorious career
He pursued his education in various places in Andhra Pradesh, including Gudur, Nuzividu, and Nandigama.
He completed his MSc in Mathematics from the Andhra University, and later obtained an MA in Statistics from Calcutta University.
The Union government honoured him with the Padma Bhushan — the country’s third-highest civilian award — in 1968 and the Padma Vibhushan — the second-highest — 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 awarded the International Prize in Statistics, which is considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Statistics.
He also held a PhD from Cambridge University (1948). In 1965, Cambridge awarded him the higher doctorate degree, ScD. King’s College also gave him the rare honour of lifetime fellow.
Rao held 39 honorary doctorates from universities — including the University of Buffalo (UB) in New York — across 19 countries on six continents.
Rao, after attending a one-year programme at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), spent 40 years of his professional career there.
In 1979, he took mandatory retirement from ISI and moved to the United States, where he held teaching positions at the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University.
He joined UB in 2010 as a research professor in the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health and Health Professions.
Rao authored 476 research papers — 201 between 1940 and 1980 in India, and 275 between 1980 and 2010 in the United States. He has written 15 books, including leading textbooks in the field.
Also read: Noted poet and activist Gaddar breathes his last
Condolences
Tributes poured in from all parts of the world over the passing of Rao.
Deeply shocked to know about the passing away of eminent Indian-American scientist Dr.C.R.Rao garu.
His works earned him the prestigious International Prize in Statistics-2023 and his monumental work in statistics will continue to enormously impact the discipline of statistics… pic.twitter.com/UzBfv6hsyg
— Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan (@DrTamilisaiGuv) August 23, 2023
Extremely sorry to learn about the passing away of dr c r rao ,a legend , greatest statistician of world fame and founder patron of C r rao AIMSCS
May his soul rest in peace
My condolences to all friends and his students om Shanti— Dr V K Saraswat (@DrVKSaraswat49) August 23, 2023
C.R. Rao, one of the greatest mathematical statisticians of the 20th century, has just passed away at the age of 102. He was active till the very end.
He was a pillar of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) for over 40 years inspiring generations of students and researchers…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) August 23, 2023
His family includes his daughter Tejaswani Rao; son Veerendra, an electrical engineer and computer scientist; daughter-in-law Malini, a speech pathologist; grandchildren, Amar and Rohith; and granddaughter-in-law Mitra.
