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Satyendra Nath Bose /sɐθ.jin.ðrɐ nɑθ bos/ (January 1, 1894 – February 4, 1974) was an Indian physicist specializing in mathematical physics. Bose was born in Kolkata (Calcutta), the eldest of seven children. His father, Surendranath Bose, worked in the Engineering Department of the East India Railway. Bose attended Hindu High School in Calcutta, and later attended Presidency College, also in Calcutta, always earning the highest marks. From 1916 to 1921 he was a lecturer in the physics department of Calcutta University. In 1921, he joined the physics department of the then recently founded Dacca University, again as a lecturer. In 1926 he became a professor and was made head of the physics department, and continued teaching at Dacca University until 1945. At that time he returned to Calcutta, and taught at Calcutta University until 1956, when he retired and was made professor emeritus.

While at Dacca University, Bose wrote a short article, "Planck's Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta", which he sent to Albert Einstein after it was rejected by the Philosophical Magazine. Einstein was favorably impressed and recommended the article for publication in the Zeitschrift für Physik, and Einstein personally translated the article from English into German.

Bose's article introduced quantum statistics of photons. Einstein adopted the idea, and extended it to atoms and predicted the existence of phenomena called later as Bose-Einstein condensate. Bose-Einstein statistics and bosons are named after Bose as well.

Bose's ideas were well received in the world of physics, and he was granted leave from the University of Dacca to travel to Europe in 1924. He spent a year in Paris and worked with Marie Curie, and met several other well-known scientists. He then spent another year abroad, working with Einstein in Berlin. Upon his return to Dhaka, he was made a professor in 1926. He did not have a doctorate, and so ordinarily he would not be qualified for the post, but Einstein recommended him.

Apart from physics he did some research in biochemistry and literature (Bengali, English). He made deep studies in chemistry, geology, zoology, anthropology, engineering and other sciences. Being Bengali of origin he devoted a lot of time to promote Bengali as teaching language and to develop the region as well.

He is considered as one of the most intelligent, broad-minded scientists of the 20th century.

References

• S.N. Bose. "Plancks Gesetz und Lichtquantenhypothese", Zeitschrift für Physik 26:178-181 (1924). (The German translation of Bose's paper on Planck's law)

External links

• Satyendra Nath Bose (biography at Calcuttaweb)
• Satyendranath Bose (at the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive)

• 1894 births
• 1974 deaths
• Indian physicists