Sarva Jit Singh earned his BSc and MSc (Mathematics) degrees from Agra University, and PhD (1967) from Kurukshetra University under the supervision of SD Chopra. He worked as Faculty Member, KU (1962-76) and then moved as Founding Head and Professor, Department of Mathematics, Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak (1976-99). He also worked as Junior Postdoctoral Fellow (1967-69), Senior Postdoctoral Fellow (1971-72) and Visiting Scientist (1978, 1979 and 1986) at the Weizmann Institute of Science where he worked in close collaboration with Ari Ben-Menahem and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA as a Research Associate (1972-73).

Academic and Research Achievements: Singh worked on various important problems in the areas of theoretical seismology and solid mechanics, including modeling of earthquake sources, computing the coseismic and postseismic deformation caused by earthquake faulting, showing theoretically that earthquakes are insufficient to maintain the Chandler wobble, calculating the amplitudes of Earth's normal modes, and deriving the elements of the transfer matrix for elastic and poroelastic media. He published about 130 research papers, and two books: Seismic Waves and Sources (Springer-Verlag, 1981) with A Ben-Menahem (reprinted by Dover in 2000); and Deformation of Elastic Solids (Prentice-Hall, 1991) with AK Mal. He taught a large number of MSc students, and supervised 13 MPhil and 15 PhD students.

Other Contributions: Singh served MDU in various capacities, including Dean, Faculty of Science and Dean, Academic Affairs. He was Chairman, Indian National Committee for IUGG (1991-94), Member, Indian National Committee for ICSU (1991-94), Indian National Correspondent of IASPEI (1992-95), Member, DST-PAMC for the Coordinated Programme on Himalayan Seismicity (1995-98), and Chairman, DST Expert Group on Research in Seismology (1997-98).

Awards and Honours: Professor Singh was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad and the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore. He was UGC National Associate (1975-80), National Fellow (1984-86), and was given the Distinguished Alumni Award of KU (1996), etc.