Satyendranath Bose

Satyendranath Bose (1 Jan 1894-4 Feb 1974)born in Calcutta, India. He did important work in quantum theory, in particular on Planck's black body radiation law. Bose sent his paper Planck's Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta (1924) to Einstein. This paper was only four pages long but it was highly significant. The derivation of Planck's formula had not been to Planck's satisfaction, and Einstein too was unhappy with it. Now Bose was able to derive the formula for radiation from Boltzmann's statistics. The paper, and his method of deriving Planck's radiation formula, was enthusiastically endorsed by Einstein who saw at once that Bose had removed a major objection against light quanta. The paper was translated into German by Einstein and submitted with a strong recommendation to the Zeitschrift für Physik. Einstein extended Bose's treatment to material particles whose number is conserved and published several papers on this extension.

An important consequence of Einstein's response to Bose's article was that his application to the University of Dacca for two years research leave beginning in 1924 was approved. He now had the chance of meeting European scientists and travelled first to Paris where he met Langevin and de Broglie. In October 1925 Bose travelled from Paris to Berlin where he met Einstein. Much progress had been made by Einstein following his receipt of Bose's paper for he was able to see how the ideas could be taken forward. While he was in Berlin Bose attended a course on quantum theory given by Born.

Bose published on statistical mechanics leading to the Einstein-Bose statistics. Dirac coined the term boson for particles obeying these statistics. Through these terms his name is rightly known and remembered, for indeed his contributions are remarkable, especially given the fact that he made his important discoveries working in isolation from the mainstream developments in Europe.

He gave leadership in many ways: as president of the physics section of the Indian Science Congress in 1939, as general president of the Indian Science Congress in Delhi in 1944, and as president of the National Institute of Science of India in 1949. His greatest honour was election to the Royal Society of London in 1958.

After Bose retired from Calcutta University in 1956 he was appointed as vice-chancellor of Viswa-Bharati University, Santiniketan. Two years later he was honoured with the post of national professor.

Courtesy:Internet