Indian Mathematician and physicist specialising in theoretical physics- The Satyendra Nath Bose's 10 Interetig Facts

Satyendra Nath Bose FRS born on 1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974 was an Indian mathematician and physicist specialising in theoretical physics. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for Bose statistics and the theory of the Bose condensate. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was awarded India's second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1954 by the Government of India. The class of particles that obey Bose statistics, bosons, was named after Bose by Paul Dirac. A polymath, he had a wide range of interests in varied fields, including physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, philosophy, arts, literature, and music. He served on many research and development committees in sovereign India.

Jun 4, 2022 - 15:30
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Satyendra Nath Bose FRS born on 1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974 was an Indian mathematician and physicist specialising in theoretical physics.

He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for Bose statistics and the theory of the Bose condensate.

A Fellow of the Royal Society, he was awarded India's second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1954 by the Government of India. The class of particles that obey Bose statistics, bosons, was named after Bose by Paul Dirac.

A polymath, he had a wide range of interests in varied fields, including physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, mineralogy, philosophy, arts, literature, and music. He served on many research and development committees in sovereign India.

Satyendra Nath Bose was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), the eldest of seven children in a Bengali Kayastha family. He was the only son, with six sisters after him. His ancestral home was in the village Bara Jagulia, in the district of Nadia, in the Bengal Presidency.

Satyendra Nath Bose schooling began at the age of five, near his home. When his family moved to Goabagan, he was admitted into the New Indian School. In the final year of school, he was admitted into the Hindu School.

Satyendra Nath Bose passed his entrance examination (matriculation) in 1909 and stood fifth in the order of merit. He next joined the intermediate science course at the Presidency College, Calcutta, where his teachers included Jagadish Chandra Bose, Sarada Prasanna Das, and Prafulla Chandra Ray.

Satyendra Nath Bose received a Bachelor of Science in mixed mathematics from Presidency College, standing first in 1913. Then he joined Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee's newly formed Science College where he again stood first in the MSc mixed mathematics exam in 1915.

Satyendra Nath Bose's marks in the MSc examination created a new record in the annals of the University of Calcutta, which is yet to be surpassed.

After completing his MSc, Bose joined the Science College, Calcutta University as a research scholar in 1916 and started his studies in the theory of relativity. It was an exciting era in the history of scientific progress. Quantum theory had just appeared on the horizon and important results had started pouring in.

Satyendra Nath Bose's father, Surendranath Bose, worked in the Engineering Department of the East Indian Railway Company. In 1914, at age 20, Satyendra Nath Bose married Ushabati Ghosh, the 11-year-old daughter of a prominent Calcutta physician.

They had nine children, two of whom died in early childhood. In 1974, he left behind his wife, two sons, and five daughters when Satyendra Nath Bose died. 

As a polyglot, Bose was well versed in several languages such as Bengali, English, French, German and Sanskrit as well as the poetry of Lord Tennyson, Rabindranath Tagore and Kalidasa. He could play the esraj, an Indian musical instrument similar to a violin.

He was actively involved in running night schools that came to be known as the Working Men's Institute.

Research career Satyendra Nat Bose:- Bose attended Hindu School in Calcutta, and later attended Presidency College, also in Calcutta, earning the highest marks at each institution, while fellow student and future astrophysicist Meghnad Saha came second.

He came in contact with teachers such as Jagadish Chandra Bose, Prafulla Chandra Ray and Naman Sharma who provided inspiration to aim high in life. From 1916 to 1921, he was a lecturer in the physics department of the Rajabazar Science College under University of Calcutta.

Along with Saha, Bose prepared the first book in English based on German and French translations of original papers on Einstein's special and general relativity in 1919. In 1921, he joined as a Reader of the Department of Physics of the recently founded University of Dhaka (in present-day Bangladesh).

Satyendra Nath Bose set up whole new departments, including laboratories, to teach advanced courses for MSc and BSc honours and taught thermodynamics as well as James Clerk Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism.

Satyendra Nath Bose, along with Saha, presented several papers in theoretical physics and pure mathematics from 1918 onwards.

In 1924, while working as a Reader (Professor without a chair) at the Physics Department of the University of Dhaka, Satyendra Nath Bose wrote a paper deriving Planck's quantum radiation law without any reference to classical physics by using a novel way of counting states with identical particles. This paper was seminal in creating the important field of quantum statistics.

Though not accepted at once for publication, he sent the article directly to Albert Einstein in Germany. Einstein, recognising the importance of the paper, translated it into German himself and submitted it on Bose's behalf to the prestigious Zeitschrift für Physik.

As a result of this recognition, Satyendra Nath Bose was able to work for two years in European X-ray and crystallography laboratories, during which he worked with Louis de Broglie, Marie Curie, and Einstein.

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