萨特延德拉·纳特·玻色Satyendra Nath Bose

萨特延德拉·纳特·玻色的母亲Amodini Devi几乎没有受过正规教育，但她巧妙地养育了七个孩子的大家庭。玻色的父亲是Surendranath 玻色，他曾做过一段时间会计，然后加入东印度铁路公司。他后来创办了自己的化学和制药公司。玻色是Amodini和Surendranath七个孩子中最大的，有六个妹妹。

玻色 先在加尔各答的一所小学接受教育，1907年进入印度教学院。正是在这里，他对数学和科学产生了兴趣，而正如常见的情况那样，这得益于一位杰出的数学教师以及校长的鼓励。

他于1909年开始在加尔各答管区学院学习，在那里取得了辉煌的学业成绩。他于1913年获得学士学位，1915年获得硕士学位，证明自己是迄今为止最优秀的数学学生。在他获得硕士学位的同一年，玻色与乌沙巴拉·戈什结婚。他们有五个孩子，三个女儿和两个儿子。

如果印度人被允许在政府服务中担任行政职务，玻色几乎肯定会走那条路。事实上，他继续学习物理和数学，并于1917年被任命到加尔各答新开设的科学学院。这所大学是一个研究生研究机构，在这里玻色能够研究关于quantum theory和相对论的最新欧洲文献，而在新机构开设之前，这些文献在印度并不容易获得。约西亚·威拉德·吉布斯关于统计力学的书激发了玻色对这一主题的兴趣。他还研究了阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦关于相对论的论文，并获得了阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦的许可，将其翻译在印度出版。

玻色于1921年被任命为达卡大学物理学Reader，并在那里任教至1945年，自1927年起担任教授兼物理系主任。1945年，他回到加尔各答大学，被任命为Guprasad Sing物理学讲席教授，一直担任该职位直到1956年退休，随后被授予荣休教授称号。

他在量子理论方面做了重要工作，特别是关于马克斯·普朗克的黑体辐射定律。玻色把他的论文Planck's Law and the Hypothesis of Light Quanta（1924）寄给阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦。他写了一封附信说：——

尊敬的先生，我冒昧寄上随附的文章，供您审阅并发表意见。您会看到，我试图不依赖经典电动力学来推导马克斯·普朗克定律中的系数……

这篇论文只有四页长，但意义重大。马克斯·普朗克公式的推导一直不能令马克斯·普朗克满意，阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦对此也不满意。玻色能够从路德维希·玻尔兹曼的统计推出辐射公式。这篇论文，以及他推导马克斯·普朗克辐射公式的方法，得到了阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦的热情支持，后者立刻看出玻色消除了对光量子的一项主要反对意见。这篇论文由阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦译成德文，并附上强烈推荐提交给Zeitschrift für Physik。阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦把玻色的处理推广到数目守恒的物质粒子，并就此推广发表了几篇论文。

阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦对玻色文章的回应带来了一个重要结果：他于1924年开始向达卡大学申请两年研究休假获得了批准。他现在有机会与欧洲科学家会面，首先前往巴黎，在那里会见了Langevin和路易·德布罗意。1925年10月，玻色从巴黎前往柏林，在那里会见了阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦。阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦在收到玻色的论文后取得了很大进展，因为他能够看到如何将这些思想向前推进。在柏林期间，玻色参加了马克斯·玻恩讲授的量子理论课程。

玻色发表了关于统计力学的研究，导致了阿尔伯特·爱因斯坦-玻色统计。保罗·狄拉克为服从这些统计的粒子创造了boson这一术语。通过这些术语，他的名字被正确地知晓和铭记，因为他的贡献确实非凡，尤其是考虑到他是在与欧洲主流发展隔绝的情况下做出这些重要发现的。

然而，玻色的重要性不仅在于他的研究贡献，还在于他为改善印度教育所做的努力，这导致了技术的更广泛使用。他在许多方面发挥了领导作用：1939年担任印度科学大会物理学分会主席，1944年在德里担任印度科学大会总主席，1949年担任印度国家科学院院长。他最大的荣誉是1958年当选为伦敦皇家学会会士。

玻色于1956年从加尔各答大学退休后，被任命为圣蒂尼克坦Viswa-Bharati大学副校长。两年后，他被授予国家教授职位。

P T 格奥尔格·兰茨贝格写道[3]：——

[玻色]在印度所受到的崇高敬重，在西方很难得到体会，因为西方对年长者的尊重远不如印度。玻色的一头白发和友善性格，大概最后一次公开露面是在今年1月，当时在加尔各答举行了一次统计物理国际研讨会。会上特别提到了他那篇著名论文，玻色本人也在会上讲话，要求同事们保持那赋予科学工作以满足感的“奇妙火花”。

Satyendranath Bose's mother, Amodini Devi, had received little formal education but she skilfully brought up her large family of seven children. Bose's father was Surendranath Bose who worked for a while as an accountant before joining the East Indian Railways. He later set up his own chemical and pharmaceutical company. Satyendranath was the eldest of Amodini and Surendranath's seven children, having six younger sisters.

Satyendranath began his education at an elementary school in Calcutta before entering the Hindu School in 1907. It was here that his interest in mathematics and science began, and as is so often the case, it was due to an outstanding mathematics teacher coupled with encouragement from the headmaster.

He began his studies at Presidency College, Calcutta, in 1909 where he had a brilliant academic record. He was awarded a B.Sc. in 1913 and an M.Sc. in 1915 proving himself to be by far the best student of mathematics. In the year he was awarded his Master's degree, Bose married Ushabala Ghosh. They had five children, three daughters and two sons.

Had Indians been allowed to take administrative posts in the government service, Bose would almost certainly have followed that route. As it was, he continued to study physics and mathematics and was appointed to the newly opened University College of Science in Calcutta in 1917. This university was a research institution for postgraduate studies and here Bose was able to study recent European texts on quantum theory and relativity which, before the opening of the new institution, had not been readily available in India. Gibbs book on statistical mechanics stimulated Bose's interest in this topic. He also studied Einstein's papers on relativity and obtained Einstein's permission to translate them for publication in India.

Bose was appointed as a Reader in physics at the University of Dacca in 1921 and taught there until 1945, being a professor and head of the physics department from 1927. In 1945 he returned to Calcutta University when he was appointed as Guprasad Sing Professor of Physics, a position he held until he retired in 1956 when he was made Professor Emeritus.

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. He wrote a covering letter saying:-

Respected Sir, I have ventured to send you the accompanying article for your perusal and opinion. You will see that I have tried to deduce the coefficient .. in Planck's law independent of classical electrodynamics.

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. 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.

It was not only for his research contributions that Bose is important, however, for his efforts to improve education in India led to a much greater use of technology. 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.

P T Landsberg writes [3]:-

The high regard with which [Bose] was held in India can hardly be appreciated in the West, where respect for old age is much less developed than it is in India. Bose's shock of white hair and friendly personality was probably last in evidence ant a public function in January of this year, when an international symposium on statistical physics was held in Calcutta. Special references were made to his famous paper, and Bose himself also addressed the meeting, asking his colleagues to keep afresh "that wonderful spark" which gave fulfilment to scientific work.