C. R.

Rao
Not to be confused with C. N. R. Rao.

grams and produced several leaders in the eld of Mathematics. On the basis of Raos recommendation, the ASI
(The Asian Statistical Institute) now known as Statistical
Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, FRS known as C
R Rao (born 10 September 1920) is an Indian-born, Institute for Asia and Pacic was established in Tokyo
to provide training to statisticians working in government
naturalized American, mathematician and statistician.
[5]
He is currently professor emeritus at Penn State Uni- and industrial organizations.
versity and Research Professor at the University at Buf- Among his best-known discoveries are the CramrRao
falo. Rao has been honoured by numerous colloquia, hon- bound and the RaoBlackwell theorem both related to the
orary degrees, and festschrifts and was awarded the US quality of estimators. Other areas he worked in include
National Medal of Science in 2002.[2] The American Sta- multivariate analysis, estimation theory, and dierential
tistical Association has described him as a living leg- geometry. His other contributions include the Fisher
end whose work has inuenced not just statistics, but Rao Theorem, Rao distance, and orthogonal arrays. He is
has had far reaching implications for elds as varied the author of 14 books and has published over 400 journal
as economics, genetics, anthropology, geology, national publications.
planning, demography, biometry, and medicine.[2] The Rao has received 38 honorary doctoral degrees from uniTimes of India listed Rao as one of the top 10 Indian versities in 19 countries around the world and numerous
scientists of all time.[3] Rao is also a Senior Policy and awards and medals for his contributions to statistics and
Statistics advisor for the Indian Heart Association non- science. He is a member of eight National Academies in
prot focused on raising South Asian cardiovascular dis- India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Italy.
ease awareness.[4]
Rao was awarded the United States National Medal of

Science, that nations highest award for lifetime achievement in elds of scientic research, in June 2002. The
latest addition to his collection of awards is the India Science Award for 2010, the highest honour conferred by the
government of India in scientic domain. He has most recently been 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 CramrRao inequality, RaoBlackwellization, Rao
distance, Rao measure, and for introducing the idea of
orthogonal arrays for the industry to design high-quality
products. (Raos 37th honorary doctorate was given to
him by the State University of New York at Bualo at its
167th commencement in May 2013.)

Early life

C R Rao was born into a Kannada speaking Telugu family in Hadagali, Bellary, Karnataka, India. He received
an M.Sc. in mathematics from Andhra University and
an M.A. in statistics from Calcutta University in 1943.[2]
He was among the rst few people in the world to hold a
masters degree in Statistics.

Academic career

Rao worked at the Indian Statistical Institute and the Anthropological Museum in Cambridge before acquiring a
Ph.D. degree at Kings College in Cambridge University
under R. A. Fisher in 1948, to which he added a Sc.D.
degree, also from Cambridge, in 1965.

He has been the President of the International Statistical Institute, Institute of Mathematical Statistics (USA),
and the International Biometric Society. He was inducted
into the Hall of Fame of Indias National Institution for
Quality and Reliability (Chennai Branch) for his contriHe held several important positions, as the Director of bution to industrial statistics and the promotion of quality
the Indian Statistical Institute, Jawaharlal Nehru Profes- control programs in industries.
sor and National Professor in India, University Professor The Journal of Quantitative Economics published a speat the University of Pittsburgh and Eberly Professor and cial issue in Raos honour in 1991. Dr Rao is a very disChair of Statistics and Director of the Center for Multi- tinguished scientist and a highly eminent statistician of
variate Analysis at the Pennsylvania State University. As our time. His contributions to statistical theory and apHead and later Director of the Research and Training plications are well known, and many of his results, which
School at the Indian Statistical Institute for a period of bear his name, are included in the curriculum of courses
over 40 years, Rao developed research and training pro1

3 SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

in statistics at bachelors and masters level all over the

world. He is an inspiring teacher and has guided the research work of numerous students in all areas of statistics. His early work had greatly inuenced the course of
statistical research during the last four decades. One of
the purposes of this special issue is to recognize Dr Raos
own contributions to econometrics and acknowledge his
major role in the development of econometric research
in India.

2.1

Areas of research contributions

Wilks Memorial Award (1989) of the American

Statistical Association
Padma Bhushan (1968)[9]
Megnadh Saha Medal (1969) of the Indian National
Science Academy
Guy Medal in Silver (1965) of the Royal Statistical
Society
S. S. Bhatnagar Award (1963) of Council of Scientic and Industrial Research

Estimation theory

JC Bose Gold Medal of the Bose Institute

Statistical inference and linear models

Gold Medal of the University of Calcutta

Multivariate analysis

He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Science

by the University of Calcutta in 2003.[10] Also honorary doctorates from a number of universities and
institutes around the world.

Combinatorial design
Orthogonal arrays
Biometry
Statistical genetics
Generalized matrix inverses
Functional equations

2.2

Awards and medals

Sardar Patel Lifetime Achievement Award (Sardar

Ratna) of the Sardar Patel Foundation India (2015)
Guy Medal in Gold (2011) of the Royal Statistical
Society[6]
India Science Award 2010 (the highest award in a
scientic eld presented by government of India)[7]
International Mahalanobis Prize (2003) of the
International Statistical Institute[8]
Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal (2003) of the Indian
National Science Academy
President George W. Bush, on June 12, 2002, honoured him with the National Medal of Science, the
highest award in U.S. in the scientic eld, as a
prophet of new age with the citation, for his pioneering contributions to the foundations of statistical theory and multivariate statistical methodology
and their applications, enriching the physical, biological, mathematical, economic and engineering
sciences.

2.3 In his honor

The Pennsylvania State University has established C.
R. and Bhargavi Rao Prize in Statistics,
CR Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science
National Award in Statistics established by Ministry
of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Government of India.
The road from IIIT Hyderabad passing along
Central University of Hyderabad crossroads to
Alind Factory, Lingampally is named as Prof. C.R.
Rao Road.[11]

3 Selected Publications
2009. (with PEREIRA, B. de B.) Data Mining
Using Neural Networks: A Guide for Statisticians.
State College, Pennsylvania, 2009. 186 p.
2014. (with B de Bragana Pereira and Marepalli B.
Rao).Data Mining Using Neural Networks: A Guide
for Statisticians.Chapman&Hall,CRC
1999. (with Helge Toutenburg, Andreas Fieger et
al.). Linear Models: Least Squares and Alternatives,
2ed, Springer Series in Statistics. Springer

Padma Vibhushan (2001) by the Government of India[9]

1998. (with M. Bhaskara Rao). Matrix Algebra &

Its Applications to Statistics & Econometrics. World
Scientic

Mahalanobis Centenary Gold Medal (1993?) of the

Indian Science Congress

1997. Statistics And Truth: Putting Chance To Work,

2ed. Wspc

3
1996. Principal Component and Factor Analyses.
PN
1996. Extensions of a Characterization of an Exponential Distribution Based on a Censored Ordered
Sample.

2007. (Ed. with J. Philip Miller and D.C. Rao).

Handbook of Statistics 27: Epidemiology and Medical Statistics. North Holland
2006. (Ed. with Sandip Sinharay). Handbook of
Statistics, Volume 26: Psychometrics. North Holland

1993. Applications of Multivariate Analysis. PN

2005. (Ed. with Dipak K. Dey). Handbook of

Statistics 25: Bayesian Thinking, Modeling and Computation. North Holland

1992. Signal Estimation, Multitarget Tracking and

Related Areas.

2005. (Ed.). Handbook of Statistics 24: Data Mining and Data Visualization. North Holland

1989. Multivariate Analysis and Its Applications.

PN

2004. (Ed. with N. Balakrishnan). Handbook of

Statistics 23: Advances in Survival Analysis. North
Holland

1996. Bootstrap by Sequential Resampling. PN

1988. Linear Transformations, Projection Operators

and Generalized Inverses; A Geometric Approach.
PN

2003. (Ed. with Ravindra Khattree). Handbook of

Statistics 22: Statistics in Industry. North Holland

1984. Recent Results on Characterization of Probability Distributions: A unied Approach through Extensions of Denys Theorem. PN

2001. (Ed. with N. Balakrishnan). Handbook of

Statistics 20: Advances in Reliability, North-Holland
Mathematics Studies. Elsevier

1973. Linear Statistical Inference and Its Applications, 2nd Edition. Wiley-Interscience

2001. (Ed. with D. N. Shanbhag). Handbook of

Statistics 19: Stochastic Processes: Theory and Methods. North-Holland

1973. On a Unied Theory of Estimation in Linear

Models. PN
1973. (with A.M. Kagan et al.). Characterization
Problems in Mathematical Statistics, Wiley Series in
Probability & Mathematical Statistics.
1972. (with Sujit Kumar Mitra). Generalized Inverse of Matrices and Its Applications, Probability &
Mathematical Statistics. John Wiley & Sons
1963. Essays on econometrics and planning. Statistical Pub. Society
2015. (Ed. with Marepalli B. Rao). Handbook of
Statistics 32: Computational Statistics with. Elsevier
2013. (Ed. with Venu Govindaraju). Handbook of
Statistics 31: Machine Learning: Theory and Applications. North Holland
2012. (Ed. with Tata Subba Rao and Suhasini
Subba Rao). Handbook of Statistics 30: Time Series
Analysis: Methods and Applications . North Holland
2009. (Ed. with Danny Pfeermann). Handbook of
Statistics 29A: Sample Surveys: Design, Methods and
Applications. North Holland
2009. (Ed. with Danny Pfeermann). Handbook of statistics 29B Sample Surveys: Inference and
Analysis. North Holland
2012. (Ed. with Ranajit Chakraborty and Pranab
K. Sen). Handbook of Statistics 28: Bioinformatics
in Human Health and Heredity. North Holland

2000. (Ed. with Pranab Kumar Sen). Handbook

of Statistics 18: Bioenvironmental and Public Health
Statistics. North-Holland
1998. (Ed. with N. Balakrishnan). Handbook of
Statistics 17: Order Statistics: Applications. NorthHolland
1998. (Ed. with N. Balakrishnan). Handbook of
Statistics 16: Order Statistics: Theory & Methods.
North-Holland
1997. (Ed. with G.S. Maddala). Handbook of
Statistics 15: Robust Inference. Elsevier
1996. (Ed. with G.S. Maddala). Handbook of
Statistics 14: Statistical Methods in Finance. Elsevier
1996. (Ed. with S. Ghosh). Handbook of Statistics 13: Design and Analysis of Experiments. North
Holland
1994. (Ed. with G.P. Patil). Handbook of Statistics
12: Environmental Statistics. Elsevier
1993. (Ed. with G. S. Maddala and H. D. Vinod).
Handbook of Statistics 11: Econometrics, Techniques and Instrumentation in Analytical Chemistry.
Elsevier
1993. (Ed. with N. K. Bose). Handbook of Statistics
10: Signal Processing and its Applications, Elsevier
1993. (Ed.). Handbook of Statistics 9: Computational Statistics. North-Holland

7
1991. (Ed. with R. Chakraborty). Handbook of
Statistics 8: Statistical Methods in Biological and
Medical Sciences. North-Holland.

[7] C.R. Rao Receives the India Science Award. Eberly

College of Science, Penn State University. 19 October
2010.

1988. (Ed. with Krishnaiah P.R.). Handbook of

Statistics 7: Quality Control and Reliability.

[8] The previous winners of the Award are Professor

C.R. Rao (India) in 2003... http://www.isi-web.
org/component/content/article/43-about/about/
588-2013-mahalanobis-international-award-in-statistics-announcement

1988. (Ed. with P. R. Krishnaiah). Handbook of

Statistics 6: Sampling. North-Holland.
NOTE: Handbook of Statistics 1-5 were not edited
by C. R. Rao, but by P. R. Krishnaiah.
2011. (Ed. with Dipak K. Dey). Essential Bayesian
Models. North Holland
2011. (Ed. with Danny Pfeermann). Essential
Methods for Design Based Sample Surveys. North
Holland
1994. (Ed. with G.P. Patil). Multivariate Environmental Statistics., Volume 6 in North-Holland Series
in Statistics and Probability. North Holland
1970. Advanced Statistical Methods in Biometric Research. Macmillan
1969. (Ed. with R. C. Bose, I. M. Chakravarti et
al.). Essays in Probability and Statistics, Monograph
Series in Probability and Statistics. The University
of North Carolina Press
1995. Advances in Econometrics and Quantitative
Economics, Essays in Honor of Professor C.R. Rao.
(Eds.) G. S. Maddala, T. N. Srinivasan, and Peter
C. B. Phillips. Wiley-Blackwell
1982. Statistics and Probability: Essays in Honor of
C. R. Rao. (Ed.). Kallinapur. Elsevier
1996. Selected Papers of C.R. Rao 3. (Ed). S. Das
Gupta et al. Wiley-Interscience
1994. Selected Papers of C.R. Rao 1. (Ed). S. Das
Gupta et al. Wiley-Interscience

EXTERNAL LINKS

References

[9] Padma Awards (PDF). Ministry of Home Aairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
[10] Recipients of Honorary Degrees. University of Calcutta.
[11] Road to be named after Prof. C.R. Rao. The Hindu. 10
September 2009. Retrieved 6 May 2012.

5 Further reading
Nalini Krishnankutty, 1996. Putting Chance to
Work: A Life in Statistics: A Biography of C. R. Rao.

6 Sources
Calyampudi Radhakrishnan Rao.
Minnesota Morris

University of

Statisticians in History: Calyampudi R. Rao.

American Statistical Association
Prof. C R Rao : An Eminent Statistician By Bibhuprasad Mohapatra. Govt. of Odisha.

7 External links
C. R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, India
Prof. Raos page at Penn State
Prof. Raos page at the University at Bualo
ET Interviews: Professor C. R. Rao on the
Econometric Theory page.

[1] The Numberdars. The Times of India. 1 October 2011.

Royal Society citation 1967

[2] Statisticians in History: Calyampudi R. Rao. American

Statistical Association.

Rao was awarded the Samuel S. Wilks Award in

1989

[3] C.R.Rao in News. C.R.Rao Advanced Institute of

Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science.
[4] Indian Heart Association. Indian Heart Association
Webpage. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
[5] Prole. C.R.Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics,
Statistics and Computer Science.
[6] Indian American C.R. Rao receives the RSS Guy Medal
Award. Silicon India. 2 August 2011.

C.R. Rao at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

For the CramrRao inequality and the RaoBlackwell
theorem see the relevant entries on
Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of
Mathematics
For Rao contribution to information geometry

5
Cramer-Rao Lower Bound and Information Geometry
Photograph of Rao with Harald Cramr in 1978
C. R. Rao from the PORTRAITS OF STATISTICIANS
President George Bush awarding Rao the National
Medal of Science

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

C. R. Rao Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._R._Rao?oldid=729852635 Contributors: Amillar, Fnielsen, Michael Hardy, Jitse

Niesen, Topbanana, Centrx, Giftlite, J heisenberg, Vishvas vasuki, Everyking, Mcgillianaire, PDH, Arin chaudhuri, D6, Rich Farmbrough, Chenais, Bender235, IndianCow, Bluap, Susvolans, 3mta3, Spangineer, Avenue, Dirac1933, Oleg Alexandrov, Je3000, Btyner,
Rjwilmsi, Kinu, FlaBot, NekoDaemon, Sodin, Gurubrahma, YurikBot, Gareth Jones, Zwobot, Tachs, Zvika, SmackBot, Roger Hui, BenBurch, Yamaguchi , RDBrown, Shivap, Lesnail, G716, Nishkid64, TastyPoutine, Iridescent, Jetman, Chris53516, Markjoseph125,
CmdrObot, Randhirreddy, Mattbr, Xanderer, Drinibot, Cydebot, Vk1, FrancoGG, Marek69, Bunzil, MikeLynch, Bakasuprman, Kprateek88, Tstrobaugh, Demophon, Magioladitis, PrincessCaitlai, Pnr26j, Cardamon, Walter Breitzke, Bdsatish, Fowler&fowler, Eskimospy,
Salih, Domminico, STBotD, Sauravguha, Fundamental metric tensor, Kyle the bot, Rei-bot, Hehest, Sidhu Jyatha, Roland zh, SieBot,
Phe-bot, Flyer22 Reborn, Boromir123, Aumnamahashiva, Desivijay, Sean.hoyland, ImageRemovalBot, Gobeshock Gobochondro Gyanotirtho, En.Dev, Qwfp, Gik, XLinkBot, GDibyendu, Chaitanyakadiyala, JRN08, Lightbot, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Ptbotgourou, AnomieBOT,
Angry bee, Materialscientist, C21K, Localsales, FrescoBot, Kiefer.Wolfowitz, At-par, Raj narayan Rath, GoingBatty, Narendra.jarugu,
Kkm010, Mantha.satish, Nabnobs, Stemoc, Jvsarun1993, Vivvt, ClueBot NG, Mathstat, Sonam cmi, Wcherowi, Aoghac2z, MAntonSciortino, KLBot2, Uday.shl14, Solomon7968, Dis Donc, Mogism, VIAFbot, Augustus Leonhardus Cartesius, Limit-theorem, Holenarasipura, Jonarnold1985, Padmacharan123, Velvel2, Athor07, Ambatirayudu, Gundamsastry, KasparBot, Reuleaux, Skskdh, Narainshanya and Anonymous: 83

8.2

Images

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8.3

Content license

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