Maths wizard Vashistha Narayan Singh dies at 78 in Patna hospital

Expressing grief over Vashistha Narayan Singh’s death, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said it has caused an irreparable loss to the state and the country and announced that Singh will be cremated with full state honours.

Renowned mathematician Vashishtha Narayan Singh died at a hospital in Patna on Thursday after a prolonged illness.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar floral tribute to mathematician Vasistha Narayan Singh, in Patna, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. (PTI)

A native of Basantpur under Ara muffasil police station, he had been suffering from schizophrenia for several years.

Expressing grief over Singh’s death, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said it has caused an irreparable loss to the state and the country and announced that Singh will be cremated with full state honours.

Born on April 2, 1942, Singh became a legend as a student when he was allowed by Patna University to appear in the two-year course of B.Sc (Hons) in Mathematics in its very first year. Singh had completed his schooling from Netarhat Residential School, Netarhat, near Ranchi.

He received his doctorate from University of California, Berkeley in the year 1969 for reproducing kernels and operators with a cyclic vector.

After pursuing higher studies, Singh worked at NASA and returned to India in 1971 to teach at IIT Kanpur. Later, he joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. In 1973, he was appointed as a permanent faculty in Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. A few years back, he was also appointed as a guest faculty in Bhupendra Narayan Mandal University, Bihar.