Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis
Born(1893-06-29)29 June 1893
Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died28 June 1972(1972-06-28) (aged 78)
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Alma materUniversity of Calcutta (BSc)
King's College, Cambridge (BA)[2]
Known forMahalanobis distance
Feldman–Mahalanobis model
SpouseNirmal Kumari Mahalanobis[4]
AwardsPadma Vibhushan (1968)
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE, 1942)[1]
Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)[2]
Weldon Memorial Prize (1944)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics, statistics
InstitutionsUniversity of Cambridge
Indian Statistical Institute
Doctoral advisorWilliam Herrick Macaulay[3]
Doctoral studentsSamarendra Roy[3]
Other notable studentsRaj Chandra Bose
C.R. Rao
Signature

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis OBE, FNA,[5] FASc,[6] FRS[2] (29 June 1893– 28 June 1972) was an Indian scientist and statistician. He is best remembered for the Mahalanobis distance, a statistical measure, and for being one of the members of the first Planning Commission of free India. He made pioneering studies in anthropometry in India. He founded the Indian Statistical Institute, and contributed to the design of large-scale sample surveys.[2][7][4][8] For his contributions, Mahalanobis has been considered the Father of statistics in India.[9]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference gazette was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d Rao, C. R. (1973). "Prasantha Chandra Mahalanobis 1893-1972". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 19: 455–492. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1973.0017. S2CID 74582754.
  3. ^ a b Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  4. ^ a b O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
  5. ^ Rao, C.R. (1972). "Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis : 1893–1972" (PDF). Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy. 5: 1–24.
  6. ^ "Fellowship – Mahalanobis, Prasanta Chandra". Indian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  7. ^ Hagger-Johnson, G. (2005). "Mahalanobis, Prasanta Chandra". Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science. doi:10.1002/0470013192.bsa360. ISBN 978-0470860809.
  8. ^ Ghosh, J. K.; Majumder, P. P. (2005). "Mahalanobis, Prasanta Chandra". Encyclopedia of Biostatistics. doi:10.1002/0470011815.b2a17090. ISBN 978-0470849071.
  9. ^ "VP Naidu pays homage to Mahalanobis at ISI". The Times of India. 30 June 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2018.