SN Bose

Satyendra Nath Bose FRS ( 1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974) was an Indian mathematician and physicist noted for his collaboration with Albert Einstein in developing a theory regarding the gaslike qualities ofelectromagnetic radiation. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. He is honoured as the namesake of the boson. He was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1954 by the Government of India.

Bose's ideas were afterwards well received in the world of physics, and he was granted leave from the University of Dhaka to travel to Europe in 1924. He spent a year in France 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. His work ranged from X-ray crystallography to unified field theories. He also published an equation of state for real gases with Megh Nad Saha.

Apart from physics he did some research in Biotechnology and literature (Bengali, English). He made deep studies in chemistry, geology, zoology, anthropology, engineering and other sciences. Being a Bengali, he devoted a lot of time to promoting Bengali as a teaching language, translating scientific papers into it, and promoting the development of the region.

In 1944 Bose was elected General President of the Indian Science Congress.

In 1958 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1986 S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences was established by an act of Parliament, Govt of India in Salt Lake,Calcutta in honour of this world renowned Indian scientist.

Although more than one Nobel Prize was awarded for research related to the concepts of the boson, Bose–Einstein statistics and Bose–Einstein condensate—the latest being the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics, which was given for advancing the theory of Bose–Einstein condensates—Bose himself was not awarded the Nobel Prize. Among his other talents, Bose spoke several languages and could also play the esraj, a musical instrument similar to a violin.

In his book, The Scientific Edge, the noted physicist Jayant Narlikar observed:

“

S. N. Bose’s work on particle statistics (c. 1922), which clarified the behaviour of photons (the particles of light in an enclosure) and opened the door to new ideas on statistics of Microsystems that obey the rules of quantum theory, was one of the top ten achievements of 20th century Indian science and could be considered in the Nobel Prize class.