Jagjit Singh (1912–2002) was an Indian writer and science popularizer. In college he excelled in mathematics courses, receiving his MA in Mathematics from the Government College, Lahore. Yet he made his career as an important director of India's railways, applying his mathematical skills there. Upon retirement, he set out in writing several books, starting with ''Great Ideas of Modern Mathematics'', popularizing science and targeting laymen. Singh subsequently won the

Kalinga Prize The Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science is an award given by UNESCO for exceptional skill in presenting scientific ideas to lay people. It was created in 1952, following a donation from Biju Patnaik, Founder President of the Kalinga ...

from UNESCO in 1963, being the first Indian and Asian to do so. In 1960, he was appointed director of the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

Board, and nine years later he was appointed general manager of the

Northeast Frontier Railway The Northeast Frontier Railway (abbreviated NFR) is one of the Zones and divisions of Indian Railways, 19 railway zones of the Indian Railways. It is headquartered in Maligaon, Guwahati in the state of Assam, and responsible for operation and e ...

. After his retirement he went to work as managing director of the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, adviser of

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field office ...

and adviser of

Tata Chemicals Tata Chemicals Limited is an Indian global company with interests in chemicals, crop protection and specialty chemistry products headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company is one of the largest chemical companies in India with operations in In ...

. Singh was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

of London, and was President of the Operational Society of India and a member of the Indian Statistical Institute. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Science in 1968 by Roorkee University. He was also chosen by Pakistan scientist and Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1979,

Abdus Salam Mohammad Abdus Salam Salam adopted the forename "Mohammad" in 1974 in response to the anti-Ahmadiyya decrees in Pakistan, similarly he grew his beard. (; ; 29 January 192621 November 1996) was a Punjabi Pakistani theoretical physicist and a ...

to write his biography, which came out in 1992 published by Penguin books.

Some works

* ''Great Ideas of Modern Mathematics'' * ''Great Ideas and Theories of Modern Cosmology'' * ''Great Ideas in Information Theory, Language and Cybernetics'' * ''Reminiscences of a Mathematician Manqué'' * ''Great Ideas of Operations Research'' * ''The making of a good science writer'' * ''Abdus Salam: A Biography (1992)''

References

Jagjit Singh under the heading 'A MAN OF SCIENCE
Biographical note
Frontispiece notes in 'Modern Cosmology' (retitled from 'Great ideas and Theories of Modern Cosmology'), Penguin (1961).

External links

# Modern Cosmology, Penguin (1961). Singh, Jagjit Singh, Jagjit Singh, Jagjit Indian Sikhs Kalinga Prize recipients {{india-writer-stub