Beliyar Ramdas Bhat was a professor and head of the department of statistics at Karnataka University, Dharwad for more than two decades. He was elected member of International Statistical Institute, and Fellow of Royal Statistical Society.
Bhat a Havyaka Brahmin obtained his M.A. degree in mathematics from Madras University, and a M.A. degree in statistics from Karnataka University, Dharwar prior to working on his Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1961, his advisor was David Blackwell. Bhat was elected member of Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and South African Statistical Association. He was the Secretary, Editor and President of Indian Society for Probability and Statistics. He was the past President of the Section of Statistics of the Indian Science Congress Association.