Rao Receives Award and Gives Invited Address at University of Pretoria in South Africa

13 December 2004 — Calyampudi R. Rao, Emeritus Holder of the Eberly Family Chair in Statistics and director of the Center for Multivariate Analysis, recently delivered an invited address titled "Living in a Fast Changing World" at commencement ceremonies of the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He also received an honorary doctorate degree, the twenty-ninth honorary doctoral degree he has received from universities in sixteen countries. The award recognizes Rao as “one of the world leaders in statistical sciences over the last six decades,” according to Professor C.W.I. Pistorius, vice-chancellor of the University of Pretoria, and for “his pioneering contributions to the foundations of statistical theory in many different sciences.”

One of the world's top five statisticians, Rao is recognized internationally as a pioneer who laid the foundation of modern statistics, with multifaceted distinctions as a mathematician, researcher, scientist, and teacher. His contributions to mathematics and to the theory and application of statistics during the last six decades have become part of graduate and postgraduate courses in statistics, econometrics, electrical engineering, and many other disciplines at most universities throughout the world. Rao’s research in multivariate analysis, for example, is useful in economic planning, weather prediction, medical diagnosis, tracking the movements of spy planes, and monitoring the course of spacecraft. Technical terms bearing his name appear in all standard textbooks on statistics, including such terms as the Cramer-Rao Inequality, Rao-Blackwellization, Fisher-Rao Theorem, Rao Distance, and Rao’s Score test. A book he wrote in 1965, Linear Statistical Inference and Its Applications, is one of the most-often-cited books in science.

Earlier this year the Osmania University in Hyderabad, India, established a new institute named in honor of Rao. The C.R. Rao Advanced Institute of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science was established to promote research and advanced study in the fields of mathematics, statistics, and computer sciences, and will host international workshops, conferences, and symposia to highlight advances in these fields. The institute also will be home to a museum illustrating the history of mathematics and statistics and their uses in research, industry, and society.

Among his numerous previous awards, Rao was honored in 2003 with the first Mahalanobis International Award in Statistics from the International Statistical Institute and the Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal by the Indian National Science Academy. In 2002 Rao was honored by President George W. Bush with the National Medal of Science, the highest award given to an American scientist for lifetime achievement in fields of scientific research.

He has been honored by the government of India with the Padma Vibhushan award in 2001 — the country's second-highest civilian honor — for outstanding contributions to science, engineering, and statistics; with being selected in 2000 as the namesake for a National Award to be presented to India's outstanding young statisticians; and with receiving from the prime minister of India the highest honor bestowed by the University of Visva-Bharati, the 2002 Desikottama award, in recognition of his "enormous contributions in the field of statistics and its applications."

Rao is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Science in the United States, a Fellow of the Royal Society in the United Kingdom, and a member of the Indian National Science Academy, the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, and the Third World Academy of Sciences.

Rao earned his Ph.D. and Sc.D. degrees in 1948 at Cambridge University in England. He came to the United States 1978 after serving as director of the Indian Statistical Institute, where he had held various research and administrative positions since 1944. In 1982 he established the Center for Multivariate Analysis at the University of Pittsburgh, where he continues as adjunct professor. Rao joined the Penn State faculty in 1988.

He has authored or co-authored 14 books — some of which have been translated into several languages — and more than 300 research papers published in scientific journals. He has supervised the doctoral research of approximately 50 students who have trained another 250 doctoral students themselves. Most of his former students now are employed in universities and other research organizations worldwide, many becoming research leaders in their areas of specialization.

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