C.R. Rao wins International Prize in Statistics 2023

International Prize in Statistics 2023: Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, an Indian-American statistician, has been awarded the 2023 International Prize in Statistics, which is considered the statistical equivalent of the Nobel Prize. The prize, established in 2016, is presented once every two years to an individual or team that has made significant contributions to science, technology, and human welfare through the use of statistics. A collaboration of five major international statistics organisations bestows the award, which recognises significant achievements by an individual or team. Rao will be honored with the prize, which carries an $80,000 cash award, at the International Statistical Institute World Statistics Congress in Ottawa, Canada, in July.

April 2023 Current Affairs Quiz

What was Rao’s 1945 paper about?

Rao’s groundbreaking paper, ‘Information and accuracy attainable in the estimation of statistical parameters’, was published in 1945 in the Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical Society, a journal that is otherwise not well known to the statistics community. The paper was later published as part of the book Breakthroughs in Statistics, 1890-1990. This was a remarkable accomplishment considering Rao was only 25 at the time and had just finished his master’s degree in statistics two years before.

About the C.R. Rao

Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, born in Karnataka in 1920, is an Emeritus Eberly professor in the statistics department at Pennsylvania State University. He played a significant role in establishing the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata and has been associated with the institute since 1941. Rao holds PhD and ScD degrees from Cambridge University.

Rao received the Padma Bhushan in 1968 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2001, as well as the SS Bhatnagar Prize in 1963 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1967.  He also received the Wilks Medal of the American Statistical Association in 1979 and the US National Medal of Science in 2002.

Throughout his career, Rao has held various positions such as Jawaharlal Nehru professor and national professor in India, university professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and Eberly professor and chair of statistics and director of the Center for Multivariate Analysis at the Pennsylvania State University.