Brief Biography of Professor M.P. Singh MAITHILI SHARAN 1 and SETHU RAMAN 2 Professor Singh was born in Etah, India in 1931. He received his Master’s degree from Lucknow University, was a Fulbright Scholar, and received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland (U.S.A.) in 1960, after which he worked as Postdoctoral Research Associate at Cornell University and Goddard Space Flight Center, U.S.A. Earlier research related to meteorology in India was primarily confined to collaborations with the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the country’s National Weather Service. IMD devoted significant major time focusing on the operational needs of the country. However, efforts on fundamental research for the understanding of atmospheric and oceanic features were limited in scope. Dr. M. P. Singh, Professor of Applied Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi (India) took an initiative and played a key role in the development of research and development activities in the areas of atmospheric and oceanic sciences at IIT Delhi. At his initiative, a Centre for Atmospheric Sciences was set-up at IIT Delhi 1 Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India. 2 State Climate Office of North Carolina. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7236, U.S.A. Pure appl. geophys. 162 (2005) 1401–1403 0033–4553/05/091401–3 DOI 10.1007/s00024-005-2676-9 Ó Birkha ¨ user Verlag, Basel, 2005 Pure and Applied Geophysics