Professor Satyendra Nath Bose, born on 1st January, 1894, had a brilliant academic career beginning with his schooling in Hindu School, Calcutta, and later in the Presidency College and Calcutta University.

Prof. S.N. Bose's contribution to science spanned a wide field touching upon areas of Physics, Chemistry and Life Sciences. It was in the realm of Theoretical Physics, however, that he had his most eminent achievement when he derived Planck's radiation law considering only the corpuscular nature of light. This approach was greatly appreciated by Albert Einstein and even led to their joint effort that eventually gave birth to Bose-Einstein Statistics, a landmark in Physics. The true significance of this work found recognition when, defining the fundamental nature of two types of particles existing in nature, one was named after Bose as Boson, the other being Fermion, named after the famous Physicist Enrico Fermi.

The other significant contribution of Professor Satyendra Nath Bose to the realm of Physics is his proposal of unified field theory, embracing the gravitational and electro magnatic forces together.

As an experimentalist, Prof. Bose had worked on flourescence, X-ray crystal structure analysis, thermo luminescence and radiation physics. He had active interest in instrumentation and fabrication of scientific equipment.

As a teacher he was highly revered and loved by his students. He trained and encouraged many youth for scientific research. His deep conviction about one's mother tongue being the only appropriate medium for propagating science among the people in general, led to his setting up the Bangiya Bijnan Parishad (Science Association of Bengal). He was an ardent admirer of art & music also and he himself was a good esraj player.

He held various important positions including the post of Vice Chancellor, Visva Bharati, and he was a National Professor of Physics. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society (London) in 1958 and was honoured with Padma Vibhushan in 1954. He was also a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha during the years 1952-58.

The Department of Posts is happy to pay homage through this commemorative postage stamp to this great Indian scientist.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India