Dr. Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao: Statistician
Dr. Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, the world-renowned statistician who pioneered several fundamental statistical concepts, passed away at the age of 102 (22th August 2023).
- C.R. Rao was born on September 10, 1920, in Bellary district, Karnataka in a Telugu family.
- He pioneered several fundamental statistical concepts such as the Cramer–Rao inequality and Rao–Blackwellization.
- Cramer-Rao lower bound, provides a means for knowing when a method for estimating a quantity is as good as any method.
- Rao–Blackwellization provides a means for transforming an estimate into a better—in fact, an optimal—estimate. Together, these results form a foundation on which much of statistics is built.
- The Rao-Blackwell process has been applied to stereology, particle filtering, and computational econometrics, among others, while the Cramer-Rao lower bound is of great importance in such diverse fields as signal processing, spectroscopy, radar systems, multiple image radiography, risk analysis, and quantum physics.
- Dr. Rao was awarded India’s highest honours the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan in 1969 and 2001, respectively.
