Dr Radhakrishna Rao is internationally known for his contribution to statistical theory and biometric methods, and as the principal author of several major statistical theorems which are incorporated in modern books on statistics. He has formulated the concept of second order efficiency in the theory of estimation; developed new combinatorial arrangements of importance in experimental design in agriculture and animal husbandry; introduced the concept of orthogonal arrays which provided an essential component in disproving Euler's conjecture on orthogonal Latin squares; made significant contributions to the theory and application of multivariate analysis which are incorporated in his book, "Advanced Statistical Methods in Biometric Research", published in New York.