Radha Laha

Who is Radha Laha?

Radha Govind Laha was a probabilist, statistician, and mathematician, known for his work in probability theory, characteristic functions, and characterization of distributions. He was born in Calcutta, India and he was a student of C. R. Rao at Calcutta University, where in 1957 he earned a doctorate in analytical probability theory from the prestigious Indian Statistical Institute. His dissertation was entitled Some Characterization Problems in Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics.

Laha's primary and secondary education was completed in Calcutta. In 1949 he graduated first in rank with a bachelors degree in statistics from Presidency College, Calcutta. He earned his masters degree in statistics in 1951, and doctoral degree in analytical probability theory from Calcutta University in 1957. Prizes and awards during this period include the Saradprasad prize, the Duff scholarship, the S.S. Bose Gold Medal, a University of Calcutta Silver Medal, and Fulbright Fellowship in the U.S.

In 1952 Laha joined the staff of the Indian Statistical Institute, Theoretical Research and Training School, Calcutta, India, in pure and applied statistics. In 1958 he was a Research Associate at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He returned to the Indian Statistical Institute for two years, and joined the faculty of Catholic University as a faculty member in 1962. During this period Laha established an international reputation, and he visited statistical institutes at University of Paris, France, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and in the United States. He moved to Bowling Green State University in 1972, along with his colleagues Eugene Lukacs and Vijay Rohatgi, to start a new Ph.D. program there. Laha retired from Bowling Green State University in 1996 and died in Perrysburg, Ohio on July 14, 1999 after a long illness.