The Department of Statistics at Penn State University will hold a one-day conference on Saturday, October 5, 2013 to honor Herman Chernoff, the 2013 Rao Prize winner, and Steve Fienberg, the 2013 P. R. Krishnaiah lecturer. This conference is co-organized with the Penn State Bioinformatics and Genomics Retreat.

The Rao prize was established by C.R. and Bhargavi Rao to honor and recognize outstanding and influential innovations in the theory and practice of mathematical statistics, international leadership in directing statistics research, and pioneering contributions by a recognized leader in the field of statistics. The Krishnaiah lectureship, which began as the P. R. Krishnaiah visiting scholars program in 1992, honors the memory of P. R. Krishnaiah by inviting outstanding researchers in statistics to deliver lectures at Penn State.