25 Interesting Facts about C.R. Rao- Father of Indian Statistics Research

C.R. Rao was born to C.D. Naidu and A. Laxmikantamma on 10 September 1920 in Huvvina Hadagalli in present day Karnataka.
C.R. Rao was the eighth in a family of 10 children. After his father’s retirement, the family settled down in Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

From his earliest years, C.R. Rao had an interest in mathematics.
After completing high school he joined the Mrs. A.V.N. College at Vishakapatnam for the Intermediate course.
Soon he received his M.A. in Mathematics with first rank in 1940.
C.R. Rao with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Rao decided to pursue a research career in mathematics. However he failed to get scholarship due to late submission of application.
He then went to Kolkata for an interview for a job. He did not get the job, but by chance he visited the Indian Statistical Institute.
The Indian Statistical institute was located in a couple of rooms in the Physics Department of the Presidency College, Kolkata.

He applied for a one-year training course at the Institute. Indian Statistical institute admitted Rao to the Training Section of the Institute from 1 January 1941.
In July 1941 he joined the M.A Statistics program of the Calcutta University.
In 1943, C.R. Rao passed his M.A. exam in 1943. He not only won gold medal of the University but he published some research papers!
In 1943 he joined ISI as a technical apprentice, doing research and teaching in the Training Section of the Institute.
Later in 1946, Cambridge University deputed him on a project.
While in Cambridge, he also worked in the genetic laboratory of R.A. Fisher (the father of modern statistics) and completed his Ph.D. under Fisher.
While he was in Cambridge, some of the his work which carries his name: Cramer-Rao inequality, Rao-Blackwell theorem, Rao’s score test and Rao’s orthogonal arrays.
C.R. Rao returned to ISI in 1948 and in 1949 was made a Professor at the very young age of 29.
He headed and developed the Research and Training Section of the ISI, and went on to become Director of the ISI.
Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao became the associate editor of the Sankhya in 1964 and became the editor in 1972.
C.R. Rao left ISI in 1978 and joined the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1988 he moved to the Pennsylvannia State University holding the Eberly Family Chair in Statistics and the Directorship of the Centre for Multivariate Analysis till 2001.
Dr. Rao is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A.
The Government of India awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 2001.
The Government of India instituted C.R. Rao Award for Statistics in his honor, to be given once in two years.
In 2002 he was awarded the National Medal of Science of the U.S.A.
The Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science in the Osmania University Campus has been named after him.
He is currently professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University and Research Professor at the University at Buffalo.

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