Thread by @AbhishBanerj

Small bit of news: How many of you have heard of mathematician Vashishtha Narayan Singh?

Those of us from Bihar/Jharkhand and into science have all heard about the legend of the man.

Brilliant math mind but disturbed due to mental illness. Passed away in Patna today in poverty.

Since a lot of information about him is word of mouth and not documented, let me try to collect some confirmed facts here.

Vashishth Narayan studied from Netarhat school in Ranchi, which is even today one of the top most (if not the best) school in Jharkhand.

After his UG in math at Patna Science College, he went to the Univ of California at Berkeley for his PhD.

His adviser was John L Kelley, who is one of the most prominent topologists ever.

Kelley literally "wrote the book" on topology that every kid reads in 1st year today.

Vashishth Narayan's PhD was with Hilbert spaces, which are mostly treated as part of functional analysis.

Hilbert spaces are one of the key notions that connect mathematics to physics.

He published his work in the very highly regarded Pacific Journal of Mathematics in 1974.

Coming back to India, Vashisth Narayan was with the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata for a period.

However, he was constantly tormented by mental illness and could not live up to his potential, withdrawing from the world and becoming a recluse.

In the last few years of his life, he lived in poverty.

The government of Bihar briefly appointed him as a faculty member at a university in Madhepura.

He finally breathed his last in Patna today.