Questions Persist in Professor’s Disappearance

April 12, College Park — The search continues for University of Maryland professor Stanislaw Wajda, 51, who was last seen leaving the A. V. Williams Building on the university campus the evening of April 7.

Wajda’s mental state at the time of his disappearance has since become a matter of widespread speculation. While local police and UM officials have declined to comment on the issue, the professor’s erratic behavior over the last six months is a matter of public record.

In October, police were summoned to Wajda’s home on Radcliffe Drive for a domestic-disturbance call. Wajda, who had no previous criminal record, was charged with aggravated assault and held overnight, until the charges were dropped.

On campus, Professor Wajda has been brought before the university provost two times in the past year, once for unspecified aggressive behavior toward a graduate student, and a second time following what one eyewitness described as an explosive episode in the university library over a missing periodical.

Wajda, a professor of mathematics, came to the United States from Poland in 1983 to study at Boston University, where he won several top academic prizes in his field. More recently, he was featured in the PBS NOVA documentary “Ones to Watch” for his study of prime numbers, and specifically his pursuit of a proof for what many consider to be the holy grail of mathematics today: Riemann’s hypothesis.…

I stopped reading right there, got up, and dialed Sampson’s number on my way out the door.

“Strings, thanks much.”

“No problem. Glad to help out.”

Chapter 89

“WHERE ARE YOU, JOHN?”

“I’m outside of the damn shelter, if you can believe it. I can’t. Guy pushed a shopping cart around the block a few times and then checked back in for a bed before Siegel and the others were even gone. I’ve got Donny Burke coming to take the overnight for me.”

“We need to pull the guy out of there,” I said.

“Why do you sound like you’re running?”

“He’s a math professor, John. An expert in prime numbers. And Riemann’s hypothesis.”

“What?”

“Yeah. His name’s Stanislaw Wajda, and he’s been missing for a year. Wait for me. I’ll be right there.”

It was faster to run over to the shelter than get my car. I was already down the back stairs and cutting across Judiciary Square.

“I’ve got this,” Sampson said. “I’ll have him out by the time you get here.”

“John, don’t —”

But he’d already hung up. Sampson can be just as stubborn and pigheaded as I am sometimes, which is why it’s hard to hold it against him.

I picked up the pace.

From Judiciary Square, I came out on Fourth Street and cut around the block toward Second. Before I got there, though, I saw Sampson coming right toward me as if he’d just been around the back of the building.