Dr. M. Vishnu Vardhana Rao

Dr. M. Vishnu Vardhana Rao is currently ICMR Chair for Medical Statistics and the former Director of the ICMR-National Institute of Medical Statistics (NIMS), New Delhi. A trained mathematical statistician and data scientist, Dr. Rao holds an M.Sc. (Statistics), a Ph.D. in Statistics, and an M.Tech. (IT).

Dr. Rao has over three decades of experience in planning, executing, and analyzing data for numerous large-scale community and clinical research studies in the domains of nutrition and health. His research focuses on the development and application of innovative and appropriate statistical methods for analyzing large and complex datasets. His work also encompasses several evidence-based and policy-relevant research studies.

Dr. Rao previously served as the Head of the Artificial Intelligence Cell at ICMR and was an administrator for the Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI), a free and online public record system for registering clinical trials conducted in India, which is mandated by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). He has also served as an international consultant for UNICEF.

With about 150 publications in national and international journals and 20 reports to his credit, Dr. Rao has significantly contributed to the field. He has guided numerous postgraduate students toward obtaining Ph.D. degrees in areas such as multivariate data analysis, meta-analysis, and statistical methods in AI and big data analytics.

Dr. Rao played a pivotal role in releasing:

1. The National Guidelines for Data Quality in Surveys
2. The Ethical Guidelines for the Application of Artificial Intelligence in Biomedical Research and Health Care

He is the recipient of several prestigious honours, including:

1. The National Oration Award of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS)
2. Fellowship of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (FAMS)
3. Fellowship of the Indian Society for Medical Statistics (FSMS)
4. Fellowship of the Telangana Academy of Sciences (FTAS)