Radha Laha

Radha Govind Laha (1 October 1930 – 14 July 1999) was an Indian-American probabilist, statistician, and mathematician, known for his work in probability theory, characteristic functions, and characterisation of distributions.

Biography Early life 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 Indian Statistical Institute. His dissertation was entitled On Characterization of probability distribution and statistics from specified scholastic relations.

Laha's primary and secondary education was completed in Calcutta. In 1949 he graduated first in rank with a bachelor's degree in statistics from Presidency College, Calcutta. He earned his master's degree in statistics in 1951, and doctoral degree in analytical probability theory from Calcutta University in 1957. Laha retired from Bowling Green State University in 1996 and died in Perrysburg, Ohio on 14 July 1999 after a long illness.

Laha was the author of several classical texts on probability theory and numerous publications in journals. He was an honoured Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute.

Laha was particularly interested in characterisations of the normal distribution. One of his well-known results is his disproof of a long-standing conjecture: that the ratio of two independent, identically distributed random variables is Cauchy distributed if and only if the variables have normal distributions. Laha became known for disproving this conjecture. Laha also proved several generalisations of the classical characterisation of normal sample distribution by the independence of sample mean and sample variance.

Philanthropist Laha made a generous endowment from his estate to the American Mathematical Society and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. The AMS established the Radha G. Laha Gardens in 2001. A portion of the Laha Gardens outside the AMS headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island is identified by a plaque inscribed 'to honour his gift and commitment to mathematical research'. In 2001 with Laha's generous bequest, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics established the Laha Awards to provide travel funds to present a paper at the IMS Annual Meeting.