RIYADH, 28 May — Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs Dr. Ibrahim Al-Jarallah has paid tributes to Prof. A.M. Mathew describing him as one of the finest mathematicians during his tenure at King Saud University. The minister was speaking at a function to felicitate Prof. Mathew at the Indian Embassy auditorium here. India’s Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad and his wife Sunita Mainee Ahmad were also present, besides some distinguished KSU alumni, senior embassy officials and members of the Indian community. Prof. Mathew is returning to India after 37 years of service in the Kingdom, where he worked as a professor of mathematics at KSU and subsequently at the Prince Sultan College here. He has now set up an engineering college in his home state Kerala. Dr. Al-Jarallah, who was a student of Prof. Mathew in 1967, praised his contributions to KSU’s faculty of mathematics. The minister said Prof. Mathew, as a distinguished member of the mathematics faculty, became “another ambassador without accreditation. We are proud of knowing him and wish him the best of luck.” Earlier, Talmiz paid tributes to Prof. Mathew for his sincerity and dedication in serving the Indian community. He recalled his role in setting up the Indian school in the early 1980s and seeing it through its teething troubles. Thanking the ambassador for the farewell, Prof. Mathew said it was the first for a returning NRI. — By Javid Hassan