Vasistha Narayana Singh was born into a poor family in Bihar. Over time, his outstanding mathematical talent allowed him to move from Patna to the University of Berkeley in Washington and NASA.
Vasistha Narayana Singh was born in the village of Basantpur, Bodhpur, on April 2, 1942. His exceptional abilities in mathematics became apparent from an early age. At Patna Science College, his brilliance attracted the attention of American mathematician Professor John L. Kelly, who invited him to Berkeley.
In 1963, he moved to California and received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1969. After that, he taught mathematics at the University of Washington, worked at NASA, and then returned to India to teach at IIT Kanpur and IIT Kolkata.
However, behind this outstanding mathematician lay an extremely complex personal history. Singh was diagnosed with schizophrenia and lived with this illness for more than four decades. In 1987, he returned to his village, and later disappeared during a trip, being found near Chapra four years later.
His life serves as a reminder that genius and struggle can coexist. Vasistha Narayana Singh was one of the distinguished sons of Bihar, and his contribution to mathematics deserves to be remembered.