K. C. Sreedharan Pillai (1920–1985) was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

who was known for his works on

multivariate analysis Multivariate statistics is a subdivision of statistics encompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one outcome variable, i.e., '' multivariate random variables''. Multivariate statistics concerns understanding the differ ...

and

probability distributions In probability theory and statistics, a probability distribution is a function that gives the probabilities of occurrence of possible events for an experiment. It is a mathematical description of a random phenomenon in terms of its sample spac ...

. Pillai studied at the

University of Travancore University of Kerala (formerly known as University of Travancore) is a state-run public university in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India. It was established in 1937 by a promulgation of the Maharajah of Travancore, Chithira ...

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the largest and ...

. He graduated in 1941 and obtained his master's degree in 1945. He was appointed a lecturer at the University of Kerala in 1945 and worked there for six years until he went to the United States in 1951. After studying for one year at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, he went to the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

where he was awarded a doctorate in statistics in 1954. His first post was as a statistician with the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

, a post he held from 1954 until 1962. One of his achievements at that post was the founding of the Statistical Center of the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

. He was a visiting Professor and Advisor to the University of Philippines for a number of years and supervised graduate students there. In 1962 Pillai was appointed Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

. Pillai's research was in

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

, in particular in multivariate statistical analysis. Pillai was honoured by being elected a Fellow of the

American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1839, and is the second-oldest continuous ...

and a Fellow of the

Institute of Mathematical Statistics The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts ...

. He was an elected member of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. At a meeting of the Jubilee Meeting of the Royal Statistical Society, statisticians met and formed the agreed statues of the International Statistical ...

. He was a keen

golfer Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

too. He died on 5 June 1985 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA.

External links

* * Indian statisticians 1920 births 1985 deaths 20th-century Indian mathematicians Scientists from Thiruvananthapuram Malayali people Princeton University alumni American statisticians University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni American Hindus Fellows of the American Statistical Association University of Kerala alumni Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute American academics of Indian descent {{statistician-stub Indian emigrants to the United States American people of Malayali descent