Jagdish Thakkar who passed away in New Delhi was a famous __________.

South African Born biologist, Sydney Brenner passed away at the age of 92. He was born in Gauteng, South Africa. Brenner made contributions to work on the nature of genetic code and other areas of molecular biology. He Shared a Nobel Prize in 2002 in Physiology with Bob Horvitz and John Sulston for developing a tiny transparent worm into a test bed for biological discoveries.

American military veteran and novelist, William E. Butterworth III, better known as W.E.B. Griffin passed away at the age of 89. He joined the army at the age of 17 and has served in the Korean War. He wrote more than 200 books under the pen name W.E.B. Griffin and various other names and sold millions of copies. His most popular series include "Badge of Honor", "Clandestine Operations" and "Presidential Agent".

Boyz n the Hood director John Singleton, who was the first African American and the youngest-ever film-maker to be nominated for the best director Oscar, passed away at the age of 51 after suffering from hypertension. He was born on 6th January 1968 in Los Angeles, California, U.S.In 1991, he released the Boyz n the Hood film which reflected his own background growing up in South Central Los Angeles.

Father of modern legal education in India, NR Madhava Menon passed away recently. He was 84. Menon conceptualised 5-year integrated LLB course, replacing the earlier 3-year course.

Sulagitti Narasamma (97), the renowned social worker and Padma Shri awardee, has passed away in Bengaluru on December 26, 2018. Born in 1920, she hailed from a community that was at the time referred to as 'untouchable'. She is best known for extending free of cost midwife services to women at a time when medical help was hard to come by in rural areas. It is believed that she learned the art from her grandmother, Marigemma, at a very young age. She had helped deliver more than 15,000 babies in Krishnapura, a remote village in Pavagada taluk in Karnataka. Her work received special recognition in Krishnapura & was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Tumkur University in 2014. She was also conferred with the Padma Shri by President Ram Nath Kovind on March 20, 2018.

Veteran Rabindra Sangeet singer Dwijen Mukhopadhyay died at his residence in Salt Lake,West Bengal following various age-related ailments at the age of 91. Dwijen Mukhopadhyay was known for his rendition of 'Jagoo Durga' on All India Radio and he was honoured with Padmabhushan and Banga Bibhusan. He was born in 1927 and recorded over 1000 songs of Tagore during his lifetime.

Jerry Merryman, one of three people at Texas Instruments (TI) credited with inventing the world's first handheld electronic calculator in 1960s, died at the age of 86 years at Dallas, Texas. He helped to develop the calculator while he was working at TI alongside James Van Tassel and his boss Jack Kilby, the co-creator of the first integrated circuit and Nobel Prize winner. The team filed a patent for the finished prototype in 1967 for the battery-powered product known as "Cal-Tech" which could fit in the palm of the hand and was capable of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division.

Prominent writer and academician, Maramraju Satyanarayana Rao passed away following a cardiac arrest. He was 84. He was born at Jayyaram village in Mahabubabad district in Telangana. He had worked as professor of political science and registrar of Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad. He has also authored several books.

77 year old multi award winner Italian Director Bernardo Bertolucci died after Cancer. He had won Oscar for the best director for the Movie "The Last Emperor". The Italian director had directed various award winning movies like The Conformist and Last Tango in Paris.

28 years old Malaysian golfer Arie Irawan passed away by 'apparent natural causes' in his hotel room at the Chinese resort island of Hainan. He was born on 21st August 1990 in Selangor, Malaysia.He had been competing in the PGA Tour Series-China's Sanya Championship where he missed the cut but remained at the Sheraton Sanya Resort across from Yalong Bay Golf Club.He turned professional Golfer in 2013 and won two Asian Developmental Tour events in his seven-year career.