A Patna-born prodigy, Tathagat Avtar Tulsi, 22, who completed high school at the age of 9, had a B.Sc at 10, an M.Sc in Physics at 12, and a PhD in Quantum Computing from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, at 21, was appointed as assistant professor at IIT Bombay – the youngest man to take up the post. Tulsi started teaching Physics at IIT Bombay from July 19. He chose IIT Bombay over Waterloo University, Canada, and the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research, Bhopal, both of which had offered him jobs. Hailed early as a wonder boy, Tulsi suffered humiliation in August 2001 when a delegation of scientists taken by the Department of Science & Technology to Lindau in Germany for an interaction with Nobel laureates, suggested that he was a “fake prodigy” who had “mugged up” jargon which he spouted unthinkingly. A hurt Tulsi went into a shell for several years, only to return to news this February when he became the youngest holder of a PhD in India.