Volume 124 >> Issue 26 : Tuesday, May 11, 2004

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Grad Student Bhuwan Singh Found Dead

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Graduate student Bhuwan Singh was found dead on Friday afternoon, said MIT Police Chief John DiFava.

Singh’s body was found in a storage room near his lab and office in Building 13 said Seth Horowitz, press officer for the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. He died from asphyxiation, Horowitz said.

“We don't believe that there was foul play,” and “we’re not operating under the circumstances” that the death was suspicious, he said.

“There isn't any indication of violence or foul play,” DiFava said.

The DA does not typically release the full medical examiner’s report on the death when there are no signs of crime, such as death by natural causes, accident, or suicide.

Academics, friends key to Singh

Chandra Singh, Bhuwan’s father, said at the memorial service yesterday that Bhuwan admired Mother Theresa the most, even more than Albert Einstein.

However, both Bhuwan and his younger brother Barun Singh G, current Graduate Student Council president, excelled in academics. Bhuwan enrolled in Auburn University after finishing 10th grade and entered the PhD program at MIT at age 21, according to the biography given at his memorial. Barun followed a similar path.

“I never imagined that there would be a day I would doubt that I didn’t understand something very basic” about my son, Bhuwan’s father said at the memorial service.

It was not clear that Bhuwan wanted “to continue to be the best at something that didn’t give him happiness,” he said, referring to academics.

Each person who spoke at the memorial service stressed the incredible generosity and support that Bhuwan gave to everyone he met.

He was involved with both the GSC and the dormitory government at Ashdown, where he lived. Housemaster Terry P. Orlando said that Bhuwan was fundamental to the happiness and sense of community of the dormitory.

Bhuwan “would do anything for anybody else,” to make their lives better, no matter what the sacrifice to himself, Barun said at the memorial.

“He was probably a better brother than I could ever have asked for,” and “you would want everyone remembering him being happy... cheering people up” as he always did, Barun said.