Curating collections requires going to original sources which is gratifying.
As part of the effort of building a miner on the golden age of Statistics, I researched those from Ronald Fisher times who might still alive. I found one researcher that precisely is Fisher’s only PhD: Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao, now 98.
I asked Dr. Rao for help in identifying important references and moments from those times. He graciously sent me his CV listing references to all of his glorious books (15), articles (477), and moments.
Even in his retirement he is still publishing:
http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2017/03/28/1702654114.full.pdf
Dr. Rao also sent me a PDF with historical photos of him with Mahalanobis, Prime Minister Nehru, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and others, and of many glorious moments from his career. What an honor!
His work has impacted so many fields that there are several technical terms bearing his name.
Here is an appealing quote from him:
“We study physics to solve problems in physics, chemistry to solve problems in chemistry, and botany to solve problems in botany. There are no statistical problems which we solve using statistics. We use statistics to provide a course of action with minimum risk in all areas of human endeavor under available evidence. — C. R. Rao”
