Baldev Singh received his MBBS (1927) from Panjab University, Lahore and MRCP (1930) from Royal College of Physicians, London, UK. He was the Medical Officer, Jammu & Kashmir State (1927-29), Private Practitioner at Amritsar (1931-49), Associate Professor of Neurology, Christian Medical College, Vellore (1951-54), Consultant Neurologist, Tirath Ram Shah Cheritable Hospital and Nursing Home, Delhi (1955-65), Professor of Neurology (1965-68), Professor Emeritus of Neurology (1968-73), All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), New Delhi; and also Consultant (Honorary Brigadier), Indian Military Service.

Academic and Research Achievements: Baldev Singh’s research interests included neural manifestations of high altitude, brain edema biofeedback, heat hyperpyrexia, yoga, sleep, consciousness, epilepsy, tissue culture, and neural regulation of visceral, autonomic and behaviour. He was a guide for postgraduates in the specialties of neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, clinical neurology, neurophysiology, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. He developed an experimental model of human anemia, made a microscopic study of nail bed capillaries in health and disease. He tried to differentiate between glandular tuberculosis and Hodgkin’s disease by animal inoculation in rabbit cerebellum. He carried out lesions in the cat thalamus by implanting radon seeds and recorded cortical EEG by implanted electrodes. He was able to demonstrate petit mal discharges. He showed cortico-thalamic involvement in the genesis of spike and dome EEG responses as seen in human EEG’s by this animal mode. He continued this research in cats later in India to bring out the origin of thalamic spike and slow wave activity in EEG.

Other Contributions: Dr Singh served on ICMR Scientific Advisory Board and International Brain Research Organization. He was Member, Editorial Board of Clinical Electroencephalography.

Awards and Honours: Dr Singh was conferred the Basanti Devi Amirchand Award by ICMR (1961); Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee Award; Padma Bhushan (1971); Sir Nilratan Sircar Oration (1960); and National Academy of Medical Science (India) Oration (1965). He was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India); Honorary Fellow of Aeromedical Society of India and Honorary Member, American Neurological Association (1971). He was Honorary Consultant to the President and the Prime Minister of India.