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Satyendra Nath Bose
1 January
1894 - 4 February 1974
 Satyendra
Nath Bose was an Indian Bengali physicist, specializing in mathematical
physics. He is best known for his work on Quantum mechanics, providing the
foundation for
Bose-Einstein statistics and the theory of
the
Bose-Einstein condensate . He is honored as
the namesake of the
Boson (a
particle name in Quantum physics).
Seventy years later, the first gaseous condensate was produced by
Eric Cornell and
Carl Wieman in 1995 at the
University of Colorado at Boulder
NIST-JILA
lab, using a gas of
rubidium atoms cooled to 170
nanokelvin (nK) [2] (1.7×10−7 K). For their
achievements Cornell, Wieman, and
Wolfgang Ketterle at
MIT received the 2001
Nobel Prize in Physics.
Satyendranath's mother, Amodini Devi, had
little formal education but she skillfully brought up her large family of
seven children. Satyendranath was the eldest. His father, Surendranath Bose
worked in East Indian Railways before setting up his own chemical and
pharmaceutical company.
Satyendranath attended
Hindu School and
Presidency College in Calcutta, earning the highest marks at each
institution. His life was inspired by influential teachers such as Jagadish
Chandra Bose (no relation) and
Prafulla Chandra Roy.
From 1916 to 1921 he was a lecturer in the
physics department of Calcutta University. In 1921, he joined as a lecturer
in the department of Physics of the then recently founded
Dacca University (now, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh).
In 1924 Satyendranath wrote a paper deriving
Planck's quantum radiation law without any reference to classical physics.
After initial setbacks to his efforts to publish, he sent the article
directly to
Albert Einstein in Germany. Einstein,
recognizing the importance of the paper, translated it into German himself
and submitted it on Bose's behalf to the prestigious Zeitschrift für Physik.
Because of Einstein's response the article, Satyendranath's research leave
application was approved for 2 years by University of Dacca. He traveled to
Europe and met scientists like Langevin, de Broglie and Madame Curie in
France and Einstein Germany.
In 1926, he returned to Dhaka and was promoted
to Professor after getting a recommendation from Einstein despite of not
being a formal doctorate.
His work ranged from X-ray crystallography to
unified field theories. He also published an equation of state for real
gases with
Meghnad
Saha. He eventually became head of the Department of Physics, and
continued teaching at Dacca University until 1945. After that he returned to
Calcutta, and taught at
Calcutta University (now, University of
Calcutta) until 1956. After his retirement, he was appointed as
vice-chancellor of
Viswa-Bharati University , Santiniketan.
Two years later he was honored with the post of national professor.
 Satyendranath
was a many-faceted personality. The study of literature and the practice of
art and music were his hobbies. He could read and enjoy poems in Sanskrit,
Bengali, English, French, German and Italian. He used to play 'Esraj',
a Bengali musical instrument similar to the violin.
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