Our Correspondent / Patna

Vashistha Narayan Singh, the great mathematician who challenged the Einstein theory passed away in Patna today. He was 76.

Vashistha Narayan Singh was born on 2 April 1942 in Basantpur village of Bhojpur district in Bihar, to Lal Bahadur Singh and Lahaso Devi. A poor household boy wrote a new chapter of success in every class. As he was studying in Patna Science College, luck shone and the eyes of Professor John Kelly of California University caught sight of him. After which Vashistha Narayan moved to America in 1965 and from there he did PHD in 1969. Vashistha Narayan researched ‘Cycle Vector Space Theory.

He received his primary and secondary education from Netarhat Residential School and college education from Patna Science College. Vashishtha Narayan 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. His achievements are still mentioned with a sense of pride by Netarhat Vidyalaya He received Ph.D. in Reproducing Kernels and Operators with a Cyclic Vector from University of California, Berkeley, in 1969. His doctoral advisor was John L. Kelley.

Dr. Vasistha who was very promising since childhood, who also came to know about him, was shocked. In the sixth grade, when I stepped into a school in Netarhat, I did not turn around.

Narayan became an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He also got a chance to work at NASA as well, where Vashishtha Narayan’s ability surprised many. It is said that the time of launch of Apollo When suddenly the communicators stopped working, Vashistha Narayan started calculating which was later considered correct.

Due to pressure from father he left the foreign land and returned to India. He got married at the behest of the father, but luck did not favour him. In 1973-74, his health deteriorated and he came to know that he has schizophrenia, since then he remained ill till his death.