ASA Connect

The remarkable P.C. Mahalanobis was born 127 years ago today. Our colleague Nagaraj Neerchal informed me that the Indian government has declared June 29th (birthday of P. C. Mahalanobis) as National Statistics Day. Part of the celebration includes a short video with interviews with an economist (Prof. T. Krishna Kumar) and with the chairperson of National Statistical Commission (Prof. Bimal K. Roy).

Here's the link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/Chinmaya.VV/videos/773274436410932/

Ron

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Ron Wasserstein
Executive Director
The American Statistical Association
Promoting the Practice and Profession of Statistics
732 N. Washington St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-684-1221 x1860
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Anecdotes about famous people are fun, so I will share this one about Professor Mahalanobis. (I'm not endorsing, just relating.) In the 1960s, I invited him to lecture at the University of Connecticut when I was statistics department head. At my house for dinner, he asked about my research. I told him I had a nifty new method but was afraid to release it because I hadn't managed a proper derivation. He said in his charming Indian accent (I double the r's to mimic his roll), "If you have a method that worrks, use it. Use it. Some day some mathematician will come along and prrove you are rright."

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Bob Riffenburgh
SDSU, semi-retired
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The video link has been updated: https://www.facebook.com/Chinmaya.VV/posts/896522440759112

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Ron Wasserstein
Executive Director
The American Statistical Association
Promoting the Practice and Profession of Statistics
732 N. Washington St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-684-1221 x1860
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