Unknown Indian Scientists who missed the Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize have started in 1901. The Nobel Prize was established for honoring men and women across the globe for their outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and also for their work in  peace. The foundations for the Nobel prize were laid in 1895 , when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.

Who is  Alfred Nobel?  Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 21, 1833, who was to become a famous scientist, inventor, businessman and founder of the Nobel Prizes. His father was Immanuel Nobel and his mother was Andriette Ahlsell Nobel.  His family was descended from Olof Rudbeck, the best-known technical genius in Sweden in the 17th century, an era in which Sweden was a great power in northern Europe. Nobel was fluent in several languages, and wrote poetry and drama. Nobel was also very interested in social and peace-related issues, and held views that were considered radical during his time. (for More info go to www.nobleprize.org)

Some of the Famous Indian scientist have got the Nobel prizes. But, there are few who are famous as well as unkown scientist who did not get any Nobel prizes for their work.  One of the Famous Mathematician and Physicits is Satyendra Nath Bose also known as S.N. Bose. He was famous/ noted for his collaboration with Albert Einstein. He and Einstien developed a theory regarding the gaslike qualities of electromagnetic radiation. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, providing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate. He is honoured as the namesake of the boson. He was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan in 1954 by the Government of India. Eventhough, Bose-Einstein Statistics and condensate have been awarded noble prize more than once;  S.N. Bose himself never got any Nobel Prize.

An unknown yet famous to elite group a scientist Debendra Mohan Bose. D.M. Bose was born on 26 November 1885.  Bose was Nephew of  Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose (J.C. Bose). In beggining, Bose was enrolled for degree in Engineering in Bengal Engineering College, Shibur. It was cut short because of his suffering from severe malaria. Nobel Laureate (Gurudev) Rabindra Nath Tagore, a close friend of J.C. Bose, suggested D.M. Bose to study Physics. Bose studied M.A. in physics and passed with First class in 1906.

In 1914, D M Bose was appointed the Rashbehary Ghosh Professor of Physics in the newly founded Calcutta University College of Science. He was awarded the Ghosh Travel Fellowship for studying abroad, and chose to study advanced physics for two years at the Humboldt University in Berlin. In Berlin, D.M. Bose was assigned to Professor Erich Regener’s laboratory. His stay in Germany got extended to five years due to World War I. During this period, he worked on the development of a new type of cloud chamber (also considered as Wilson Chamber) and was successful in photographing the tracks of recoil protons produced during the passage of fast moving alpha particles in the chamber. However, he was permitted to submit his findings after the end of war. The results of his preliminary investigations were publhished in the journal Physikalische Zeitschrift in 1916 and the full paper was later published in Zeitschrift fur Physik in 1922.

World Wars have been important to D.M.Bose’s work in a peculiar way. The Second World War broke out in 1939. This time, of course, he was in his own country doing research freely. Between 1939 and 1942 he with Biva Choudhuri exposed a large number of photo plates in the mountainous regions of Darjeeling. The idea was actually given by a famous scientist, Walter Bothe. He had asked Debendra Mohan to consider photographic emulsion as a continuously active cloud chamber where tracks are automatically registered and stored permanently.

Due to the World War II restrictions, full tone photographic plates were not available in India at that time. They exposed Ilford half-tone photographic plates in the high altitude mountainous regions of Darjeeling, and observed long curved ionizing tracks that appeared to be different from the tracks of alpha particles or protons.

In fact, they were looking at the first tracks of meson whose discovery was later announced by Cecil Frank Powell. It happened at the end of  war in 1945. Two years later Powell announced the existence of two kinds of mesons, mu meson and pi meson. He received Nobel Prize for his discovery. D.M. bose did not receive noble prize .

Here I have mentioned only 2 scientists who missed the noble prize. But there are many scientists in India who have missed Noble prizes and  many awards. Many scientists who never cared for any awards or prizes.

Sources: Wikipedia and Scietificindian websites.