St. Xavier's College, Calcutta

University of Cambridge

Jagadish Chandra Bose was a physicist, biologist, archaeologist and botanist. He made many significant inventions in plant science and made advances in the discovery of radio and microwave optics. He is called as the father of radio science by IEEE and father of Bengali science fiction. He was the first one from India to receive patent from US in 1904.

He was born on 30^th November 1858 in Bikrampur in Bengal which is now a part of Bangladesh. His father was Bhagawan Chandra Bose who was a leader of Brahmo Samaj. He studied at Vernacular school and joined Hare School in 1869. Then he studied at St. Xavier’s school at Kolkatta. In 1875 he joined St. Xavier’s College at Calcutta and received his bachelor’s degree in 1879. He went to England to study Medicine at the University of London but could not continue due to his ill health. Then he studied Natural Science at Christ’s College, Cambridge.

After returning back to India in 1885, he became the professor of physics in Presidency College. He was discriminated on basis of racialism and was given a low salary. He refused to accept this salary. The college Principal realized his value and made him permanent with a full salary of three years in a lump sum. He continued the experiments of James Clerk Maxwell, the British physicist and reduced the length of the microwaves to the millimeter level. His first scientific paper was ‘On polarization of electric rays by double refracting crystals.’

He also made his contributions to plant physiology. He found out that the electromechanical pulsations of living cells were responsible for the ascent of sap in plants. He showed that the plants responded to various stimuli with the help of his new invention, Crescograph. He began his examination of inorganic matter. His first major wok in Bangla science fiction was Niuddesher Kahini. He was the inventor of ‘wireless telecommunications.’ He got the patent on 29^th March 1904.

He wrote many books and published many papers. He was bestowed Knighthood by British government in 1917. He served as the Fellow the Royal Society in 1920 and Member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences in 1928. He died on 23^rd November 1937. The Indian Botanic Garden was named after him in his honor as Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden on 25^th June 2009.