Vashishtha Narayan Singh | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1946-04-02)2 April 1946 Basantpur,Bhojpur District,British India |
| Died | 14 November 2019(2019-11-14) (aged 73) Patna, Bihar, India |
| Occupation | Academic |
| Awards | Padma Shri (2020) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Netarhat Residential School Patna Science College University of California, Berkeley |
| Doctoral advisor | John L. Kelley |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | University of Washington IIT Kanpur TIFR, Mumbai I.S.I. Kolkata |
Vashishtha Narayan Singh (2 April 1946 – 14 November 2019) was an Indian mathematician and academic. He taught mathematics at various institutes in India between the 1960s and the 1970s. He is popular on social media for supposedly having challengedEinstein's Theory of Relativity but there are no credible sources that prove so. In the early 1970s, Singh was diagnosed withschizophrenia due to which he was repeatedly in and out of psychiatric hospitals and only returned to academia in 2014. He was posthumously awarded thePadma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India for his contributions, in 2020.
Singh was born on 2 April 1946 to Lal Bahadur Singh, a police constable, and Lahaso Devi in the Basantpur village of theBhojpur district inBihar, India.[1][2][3]
Singh was a child prodigy.[1] He received his primary and secondary education fromNetarhat Residential School, and he received his college education fromPatna Science College.[4][5] He received recognition as a student when he was allowed byPatna University to appear for examination in the first year of its three-yearBSc (Hons.) Mathematics course and laterMSc examination the next year.[6][7]
Singh joined theUniversity of California, Berkeley in 1965 and received a PhD inReproducing Kernels and Operators with a Cyclic Vector (Cycle Vector Space Theory) in 1969 under doctoral advisorJohn L. Kelley.[8][9][2][1]
After receiving his PhD, Singh joined theUniversity of Washington as an assistant professor. He returned to India in 1974 to teach atIndian Institute of Technology Kanpur.[10] After eight months, he joinedTata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bombay where he worked on a short-term position. Later he was appointed a faculty at theIndian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.[11][2][1]
Singh married Vandana Rani Singh in 1973 and they divorced in 1976. He was later diagnosed withschizophrenia.[10][2] With his condition worsening in the late 1970s, he was admitted to theCentral Institute of Psychiatry inKanke (now inJharkhand) and remained there until 1985.[1]
In 1987, Singh returned to his village of Basantpur. He disappeared during his train journey toPune in 1989 and was found four years later in 1993 in Doriganj nearChhapra ofSaran district.[10][8] He was then admitted to theNational Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS),Bangalore. In 2002, he was treated at theInstitute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS), Delhi.[1]
In 2014, Singh was appointed a visiting professor atBhupendra Narayan Mandal University (BNMU) inMadhepura.[12][7][13]
Singh died on 14 November 2019 atPatna Medical College and Hospital in Patna after prolonged illness.[2][14]
Singh was awarded thePadma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India, posthumously in 2020.[15][16][17]
FilmmakerPrakash Jha announced a biographical film on Singh's life in 2018.[10][18] Singh's brother Ayodhya Prasad Singh, citing pending legal guardianship issues, said that no film rights had been granted.[1][19]
