Pandurang Vasudeo Sukhatme (1911–1997) was an Indian statistician. He is known for his pioneering work of applying random sampling methods in agricultural statistics and in biometry, in the 1940s. He was also influential in the establishment of the

Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute The Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute is an institute under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with the mandate for developing new techniques for the design of agricultural experiments as well as to analyze data ...

. As a part of his work at the

Food and Agriculture Organization The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition and food security. Its Latin motto, , translates ...

in Rome, he developed

statistical model A statistical model is a mathematical model that embodies a set of statistical assumptions concerning the generation of Sample (statistics), sample data (and similar data from a larger Statistical population, population). A statistical model repre ...

s for assessing the dimensions of hunger and future food supplies for the world. He also developed methods for measuring the size and nature of the

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

gap. His other major contributions included applying statistical techniques to the study of

human nutrition Human nutrition deals with the provision of essential nutrients in food that are necessary to support human life and good health. Poor nutrition is a chronic problem often linked to poverty, food security, or a poor understanding of nutrition ...

. One of his ideas, the ''Sukhatme–Margen hypothesis'', suggested that at low calorie intake levels, stored energy in the body is used with greater metabolic efficiency and that the metabolic efficiency decreases as the intake increases above the homeostatic range. This involved paying attention to intra-individual variability that was found to be more than the inter-individual variability in protein or calorie intake. He gave a genetic interpretation of the intra-individual variation jointly with P. Narain. He was awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan (IAST: ''Padma Bhūṣaṇa'', lit. 'Lotus Decoration') is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 Januar ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

in 1971.

Early life

Sukhatme was born in a

Deshastha Brahmin Deshastha Brahmin is a Hinduism, Hindu Brahmin caste, subcaste mainly from the Indian state of Maharashtra and North Karnataka. Other than these states, according to authors K. S. Singh, Gregory Naik and Pran Nath Chopra, Deshastha Brahmins a ...

family on 27 July 1911 in village Budh, district Satara in the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He graduated in 1932 from

Fergusson College Fergusson College is an autonomous public-private college offering various courses in the streams of arts and science in the city of Pune, India. It was founded in 1885 by Vaman Shriram Apte, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vishnushashtri Chiplunkar, Mah ...

with Mathematics as principal subject and Physics as subsidiary subject. From 1932 to 1936, he studied at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1936 and a

D.Sc. A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

in 1939 for his work on bi-partitional functions. With J. Neyman and E. S. Pearson he made significant contributions in the statistical theory of sampling which was instrumental in his subsequent research in sampling theory of survey and improvement of agricultural statistics in India. This ushered in what may appropriately be termed as ''Sukhatme era'' in the development of agricultural statistics in India.

Professional life

*1940–1951: Statistical Adviser, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. *1951–1971: Director, Statistics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization,

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Contributions

Some of Dr Sukhatme's significant contributions in the form of research papers and books are: * "Contribution to the Theory of the Representative Method",

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society The ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of statistics. It comprises three series and is published by Oxford University Press for the Royal Statistical Society. History The Statistical Society of ...

(1935). PhD thesis under the guidance of

Jerzy Neyman Jerzy Spława-Neyman (April 16, 1894 – August 5, 1981; ) was a Polish mathematician and statistician who first introduced the modern concept of a confidence interval into statistical hypothesis testing and, with Egon Pearson, revised Ronald Fis ...

and

Egon Pearson Egon Sharpe Pearson (11 August 1895 – 12 June 1980) was one of three children of Karl Pearson and Maria, née Sharpe, and, like his father, a British statistician. Career Pearson was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College ...

(son of

Karl Pearson Karl Pearson (; born Carl Pearson; 27 March 1857 – 27 April 1936) was an English biostatistician and mathematician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics. He founded the world's first university ...

). * "On Bi-partitional Functions", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1936). DSc thesis under the guidance of

Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who a ...

. * "Random Sampling for Estimating Rice Yield in Madras Province", Indian Journal of Agricultural Science (1945). * "The Problem of Plot Size in Large-Scale Yield Surveys", Journal of the American Statistical Association (1947). * "Use of Small Size Plots in Yield Surveys", Nature (1947) * (With V.G.Panse). Crop Surveys in India — II, Journal of Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics (1951). * (With K. Kishen). Systems of Agricultural Statistics, Bulletin of International Statistical Institute (1951). * "Sampling Theory of Surveys with Applications", Book published jointly by Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics and Iowa State University Press (1954). Translated in Spanish. * "Statistical Methods for Agricultural Workers" (co-author: V G Panse), Book published by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (1954). Translated in Spanish. * "The World's Hunger and Future Needs in Food Supplies", Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (1961). * "Size and Nature of the Protein Gap", Nutrition Review (1970). * "The Protein Problem — Its Size and Nature", Journal of the Royal Statistical Society (1974). * (With S. Margen). Models for protein deficiency. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1978). * "Autoregulatory Homeostatic Nature of Energy Balance", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (1982). * (With P. Narain). The genetic significance of Intra-individual variation in energy requirement. In: W. G. Cochran's Impact on Statistics, Edited by P.S.R.S. Rao and J. Sedransk, John Wiley & Sons., New York (1982).

Awards

* 1963 - The

Guy Medal The Guy Medals are awarded by the Royal Statistical Society in three categories; Gold, Silver and Bronze. The Silver and Bronze medals are awarded annually. The Gold Medal was awarded every three years between 1987 and 2011, but is awarded bienni ...

by the Royal Statistical Society, London for his paper on 'The World's Hunger and Future Needs in Food Supplies'. * 1971 -

, the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India. * 1973 - The B.C.Guha Memorial Lectureship of the

Indian Science Congress Association Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) is a premier scientific organisation of India with headquarters at Kolkata, West Bengal. The association started in the year 1914 in Calcutta and it meets annually in the first week of January. It h ...

Recognition

* 1950 - Elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The designation of ASA Fellow has been a sign ...

.View/Search Fellows of the ASA
accessed 2016-07-23. * 1982 -

Bal Gangadhar Tilak Bal Gangadhar Tilak (; born Keshav Gangadhar Tilak (pronunciation: eʃəʋ ɡəŋɡaːd̪ʱəɾ ʈiɭək; 23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), endeared as Lokmanya (IAST: ''Lokamānya''), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence ...

Lectureship of the Indian National Science Academy.

Early life

Professional life

Contributions

Awards

Recognition

See also

References

Further reading