PROF. C.R. RAO SELECTED FOR FIRST
INTERNATIONAL AWARD IN STATISTICS
Prof. C.R.Rao the
former Director of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata has been
selected for the first International Award in Statistics in memory
of Prof. P.C.Mahalanobis. The award will be presented to him during
the 54th International Statistical Institute (ISI)
Session in Berlin on August 18, 2003.
Instituted by the
Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, this biennial
international award is given to a statistician from developing
country to recognise his/her lifetime achievements in statistics
and promotion of the best statistical practices. The award consists
of a cash prize of US$ 5000. For implementation of the Mahalanobis
Award the Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with the ISI, Voorburg, Netherlands. Mahalanobis Committee on
International Award in Statisitcs (MCIAS) under the championship
of Mr. Jean Louie Bodin (France), Ex President of ISI functions
as jury for the award.
Renowned statistician
Prof. Rao was conferred the Padma Bhushan in 1968 and Padma Vibhushan
in 2001 for his outstanding contributions in the field of statistical
education and research. Also, in 2002 he was honored with Presidnet’s
National Medal for Science by United States of America. The Medal
is USA’s highest award for lifetime achievement in the field of
scientific research.
His pioneering contributions
to Statistics include over 40 years at Indian Statistical Insltitute,
Kolkata. For the well-known Cramer-Rao Inequality, Rao-Blackwellisation
of unbiased estimates and Fisher-Rao Theorem he is a household
name in the family of statisticians. He has authored more than
350 papers and 14 books in diverse fields like Estimation Theory,
Multivariate Analysis, Characterisation Problems, Combinatorics
and Design of Experiments etc. The distinguished positions that
Prof. Rao has occupied are the Directorship and the Jawaharlal
Nehru Chair at the Indian Statistical Institute, Professorship
at Pittsburgh and the Eberly Professorship at Pennsylvania State
University.
