"He (Bose) was modern India’s first physicist after all, one of her very first scientists. He was his motherland’s first active participant in the Galilean - Newtonian tradition. He had confounded the British disbeliever. He had shown that the Eastern mind was indeed capable of the exact and exacting thinking demanded by western science. He had broken the mould."
~ S. Dasgupta in “Jagadis Chandra Bose and the Indian Response to Western Science”

Jagadish Chandra Bose was born on 30 November 1858 in Mymensingh, India. He was the second child of Bhagaban Chandra Bose and Bama Sundari Bose, both of whom were well-to-do members of the Brahmo Samaj. Bose attended St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta from 1875 to 1877, where he received his BA degree. After leaving India for England, he studied medicine at London University for a year before returning home to take up a scholarship at Christ's College Cambridge. There he earned a BS degree in Chemistry in 1880 and an MA in Physics in 1881.

In 1891, Bose returned to India as an assistant professor at the Presidency College in Calcutta. The following year, he was promoted to associate professor and later full professor at Presidency College. During this period of time, Bose developed a close relationship with the student body of Presidency College - which included many future scientists and political leaders.

On December 12, 1901, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first transatlantic wireless signal across the Atlantic Ocean. To be able to make this historic transmission, he used a device called a "mercury coherer with a telephone receiver," or "mercurial detector." The true origin of this detector has been investigated and determined by British historian V.J. Phillips in his book "The Wireless Telegraphy Story." Incontrovertible evidence is presented to show that Sir J.C. Bose of Presidency College, Calcutta, India invented it in 1899.

Bose's epoch-making work was communicated by Lord Rayleigh to the Royal Society London on March 6, 1899, and read at their April 27 meeting. Soon after that disclosure (in February 1901), Lieutenant L. Solari of the Royal Italian Navy experimented with this detector device and presented a trivially modified version to Marconi; he then applied for a British patent on it. Surrounded by scandalous news coverage, this detection device was actually a semiconductor diode—and it is known as the "Italian Navy Coherer" today! The coherer was a key component of early radio communication, being one of the first semiconductor devices used in practical applications. It consists of a stack of metal filings between two electrodes immersed in an insulating liquid. His contribution to the field of Radio communication, continues to remain shrouded in the fog of history. Though it is a fact that he was one the earliest scientist to work and demonstrate this phenomenon, fewer people still recognize this.

By about the end of the 19th century, the interests of Bose turned away from electromagnetic waves to response phenomena in plants; this included studies of the effects of electromagnetic radiation on plants, a topical field today. His research into plant physiology and botany helped him develop dozens of new varieties of crops that are still used today throughout the country (including rice, wheat, paddy rice and indigo).

Bose's research interests were wide-ranging and included topics such as optics, physics, biochemistry, mathematics and astronomy. He made extensive use of scientific demonstrations to engage his students' interest in science topics such as electricity theory or thermodynamics. This approach helped him develop a reputation as being a great teacher - one who could inspire young minds while teaching them about science itself rather than just memorizing facts from textbooks! Many of his students at the Presidency College were destined to become famous in their own right - for example S.N. Bose, later to become well known for the Bose-Einstein statistics.

Bose traveled frequently to Europe and the United States on various scientific missions and gave lectures on electromagnetic waves, the effects of electromagnetic waves on living and nonliving matter, and plant physiology. On a personal level, Bose believed in the free exchange of scientific knowledge and strongly believed that knowledge grows by sharing it with fellow scientists. Bose died on 23 November 1937 at the age of 78.