Once world famous scientist, Niels Bohr, was delivering a lecture in a seminar presided by an Indian scientist.  At one stage he had some difficulty in explaining a point. He had been writing on the blackboard; he stopped and, turning to the Indian scientist, said, “Can Professor help me?” All the while the Indian scientist had been sitting with his eyes shut. The audience could not help smiling at Bohr’s words. But to their great surprise, the Indian scientist opened his eyes; in an instant he solved Bohr’s difficulty. Then he sat down and once again closed his eyes.

This  great scientist was Professor Satyendra Nath Bose, popularly known as S. N. Bose. Today most students of physics and mathematics in upper classes read Bose-Einstein statistics. This new type of statistics was evolved by Satyendra Nath Bose, the National Professor of India. The particles to which this statistics is applicable are called  Bosons named after him. This statistics is applicable to identical and in distinguishable particles.

Professor Satyendra Nath Bose was born in Kolkata on January 1, 1894. His father Surendranath Bose was a railway official. Right from his school days, he displayed extraordinary intelligence. There is an interesting story which gives a glimpse of his intelligency. In his school, he once obtained 110 in mathematics out of 100 because he had solved some difficult sums in more than one way. His teacher predicted that he would one day become a great mathematician. He was formally called Satyen among his friend  circle. His rival classmates knew that they would not get the first position in the university as long as S. N. Bose was there in the class. Because of this fear, quite a few of his classmates changed their subjects and some even did not appear at the examination that year. In 1995, Bose topped the Kolkata University. In the same year, he translated Einstein’s  “Theory of Relativity” from German to English.

In 1916, after completing his M.Sc degree he was appointed a lecturer of Physics in Dacca University. In the same year, because of World War I the researches done in Europe was not been published. Mean while, many investigations were going on in this field of Nuclear Physics. S. N. Bose kept contacts with Devendra Nath Bose through letters to keep abreast with latest developments. D.N. Bose was at that  time doing research  magnetism in Germany, but due to onset of war, he was stuck up there. In 1921 S. N. Bose became a reader in Physics in Dacca University. In 1923 he submitted his research paper on the derivation of Planck’s Equation to a British Journal ‘The Philosophical Magazine’. The referee rejected his paper and did not recommended it for publication. Bose was not disheartened due to the rejection of his paper. He was confident that his work was of high standard. Bose sent his rejected paper to the world famous scientist Sir Albert Einstein for his comments. Einstein read his paper and wrote back to Bose that his work was an important contribution to mathematics. Einstein himself translated this paper in German language and it got published in the prestigious ‘Zeit fur Physik’. After the publication of this paper in 1924, he became a man of international fame and his name became associated with the great scientist Einstein. This paper marked the beginning of a new type  of statistics called Bose-Einstein statistics.

To describe an interesting incident from Bose’s life, when he sent an application to Dacca University for the post of a professor, the officials of the university told him that he did not have the degree of Ph. D or D. Sc essential for the post. They asked him to bring a certificate from Einstein that his work was of Ph. D standard. When S.N. Bose wrote to Einstein for a certificate, Einstein replied, “ Your country men do not believe that the work published is  much above the standard of a  D.Sc degree.”

In 1924, S.N. Bose went to Paris on study leave to carry out some research under Madam Curie. There he spent 10 months working with Madam Curie and Louis de Broglie. From there, Bose went to Berlin where Einstein accorded him a warm  welcome. There he had discussions with the world famous scientists such as Planck, Schrodinger, Lank, Heisenberg and Somerfeld. Bose adopted Einstein as his Guru in the oriental tradition, though he never had any occasion to work with him.

From Berlin, Bose came back to Dacca and was appointed professor and Head of the Department of Physics. In 1945 he left Dacca and joined the University Science College in Kolkata as a professor of Physics. After his retirement in 1956, he was appointed Vice-chancellor of Viswabharati University. In all he published around 24 papers on various aspects of physics.

Bose was  very affectionate to his students. He would often help his students financially. He would chat for hours with friends and students on almost various subjects every evening. He was as much interested in solving crossword puzzles as complicated problems of physics and mathematics.

After his retirement from Vishwabharati University, he was appointed as fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1958. In the same year he was also awarded Padma Vibhusan by the government of India and was made the National Professor. In his old age, Bose travelled to many scientific institutions of the country and gave useful scientific talks  to scientists. On 4th February, 1974, the great scientist Prof. S.N. Bose passed away in Kolkata. He will be always remembered for his work with Einstein.