Yashwant Singh earned his BSc and MSc degrees from Gorakhpur University (now DDU University), after which he joined Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Jadavpur, Kolkata where he worked on transport phenomena in gaseous state under the supervision of BN Srivastava and obtained DPhil from Calcutta University (1969). Thereafter, he joined the Department of Physics, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) as Lecturer (1970) and became Reader (1976). He then worked at IBM Research Laboratory, California (1976-78) on interfacial phenomena. From 1982 to 1984, Singh was at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign where he worked with David Chandler and Peter Wolynes on problems of electron localization in a liquid like medium and on the glass transition. He was appointed Professor in 1985 and served as Head of Department of Physics (2002 -05), Coordinator, Centre for Advanced Studies (2005-06), and Professor Emeritus after his superannuation in 2006, all at BHU.

Academic and Research Achievements: Singh's researches span the area of classical and semi-classical fluids, interface, electron localization in a highly deformable medium, liquid crystals, polymers and biological systems. He made notable contributions on the effect of multipolar correlations on properties of molecular liquids, quantum corrections to pair correlation functions and thermodynamic properties of liquids, theory of liquid-vapour and solid-liquid interfaces, theory for solvated electron accurate to all order of coupling strength, density-functional theory for glass transition, theory for freezing of molecular liquids into mesoscopic phases, density-functional formalism for elastic constants of liquid crystals, theory for transitions involving collapse, segregation, entanglements, adsorption of polymers, theory for pair correlation functions of ordered phases, etc. He has authored over 130 research articles and review articles. He also mentored a large number of students including 18 PhD students.

Other Contributions: Singh set up an internationally recognized center for soft-condensed matter physics at BHU. He also served on the Editorial boards of the journals: Pramana and Indian Journal of Physics.

Awards and Honours: Professor Singh was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and The National Academy of Sciences,India.