Amar Bose

{{About|the American engineer and founding chairman of Bose Corporation|other people named Bose|Bose (surname)|other uses of the name|Bose (disambiguation){{!}}Bose}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Amar Bose

| image = Amar Bose india times.jpg

| caption =

| birth_name = Amar Gopal Bose

| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1929|11|2}}

| birth_place = {{Nowrap|Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=yes|2013|07|12|1929|11|2}}

| death_place = Wayland, Massachusetts, U.S.

| occupation = Engineer, entrepreneur, founder of Bose Corporation

| spouse = Prema Bose (divorced)
Ursula Boltshauser (widowed)

| children = 2, including Vanu

| website =

| signature =

| module = {{Infobox academic |child=yes

| education = Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS, DcS)

| doctoral_advisor = Norbert Wiener{{MathGenealogy|id=82828}}
Yuk-Wing Lee

| doctoral_students = Alan V. Oppenheim

| thesis_title = A theory of nonlinear systems

| thesis_url = https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/38918

| thesis_year = 1956

}}

Amar Gopal Bose (November 2, 1929 – July 12, 2013) was an American entrepreneur and academic. An electrical engineer and sound engineer, he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for over 45 years. He was also the founder and chairman of Bose Corporation.

In 2011, he donated a majority of the company to MIT in the form of non-voting shares to sustain and advance MIT's education and research mission.{{cite news | title = Amar Bose '51 makes stock donation to MIT | date = 2011-04-29 | work = MIT | url=http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/bose-gift.html | access-date = 2012-02-05}}

Early life and education

Bose was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,{{Cite web|title=Innovations/achievements|url=https://www.bose.com/en_us/about_bose/innovations_achievements.html|access-date=2021-01-15|website=www.bose.com|language=en-US}} to a Bengali father, Noni Gopal Bose and an American mother, Charlotte Mechlin (1895-1973). His mother was a schoolteacher of French and German ancestry.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=prhRl6DYXRMC&q=amar+bose+mother+charlotte |title=Distinguished Asian Americans: A Biographical Dictionary – Google Boeken |isbn=9780313289026 |access-date=2013-07-16|last1=Cordova |first1=Dorothy C. L. |last2=Fugita |first2=Stephen S. |last3=Chuong |first3=Chung H. |last5=Ng |first5=Franklin |last4=Singh |first4=Jane |year=1999 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing }} His father was an Indian independence activist{{cite web |url=http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201416 |title=Rich & Famous In The US | Padma Rao Sundarji |publisher=Outlookindia.com |date=1996-05-22 |access-date=2012-07-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130817090746/http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?201416 |archive-date=August 17, 2013 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }} who, having been imprisoned for his political activities, fled Bengal in the 1920s in order to avoid further persecution by the British colonial police.{{cite news | first = Brad | last = Lemley | title = Discover Dialogue: Amar G. Bose | date = 2004-10-01 | url = http://discovermagazine.com/2004/oct/discover-dialogue | work = Discover Magazine | access-date = 2012-02-01}}

Bose first displayed his entrepreneurial skills and his interest in electronics at age thirteen when, during the World War II years, he enlisted school friends as co-workers in a small home business repairing model trains and home radios, to supplement his family's income.{{cite web |title=Bose Breakthrough: Electromagnetic Auto Suspension |url=http://www.siliconeer.com/past_issues/2005/january2005.html |website=www.siliconeer.com |access-date=17 November 2021}}

After graduating from Abington Senior High School in Abington, Pennsylvania, Bose enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with a BS (Bachelor of Science) in Electrical Engineering in the early 1950s. Bose spent a year at Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium in Eindhoven, Netherlands; and a year as a Fulbright research student in New Delhi, India, where he met his future first wife. He completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering from MIT, writing a thesis on non-linear systems under the supervision of Norbert Wiener and Yuk-Wing Lee.

Career

Following graduation, Bose became an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his early years as a professor, Bose purchased a high-end stereo system in 1956 and was disappointed to find that speakers with impressive technical specifications failed to reproduce the realism of a live performance. This would eventually motivate his extensive speaker technology research, concentrating on key weaknesses in the high-end speaker systems available at the time. His research on acoustics led him to develop a stereo loudspeaker that would reproduce, in a domestic setting, the dominantly reflected sound field that characterizes the listening space of the audience in a concert hall. His focus on psychoacoustics later became a hallmark of his company's audio products.

For initial capital to fund his company in 1964, Bose turned to angel investors, including his MIT thesis advisor and professor, Yuk-Wing Lee. Bose was awarded significant patents in two fields that continue to be important to the Bose Corporation. These patents were in the area of loudspeaker design and non-linear, two-state modulated, Class-D power processing.

In the 1980s, Bose developed an electromagnetic replacement for automotive shock absorbers, intended to radically improve the performance of automotive suspension systems, absorbing bumps and road shock while controlling car body motions and sway.{{cite web|last=Clynes|first=Tom|title=The Curious Genius Of Amar Bose|url=http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-07/curious-genius-amar-bose|work=Popular Science|access-date=April 21, 2014|date=July 15, 2013}}

In 2007, Bose was listed in Forbes 400 as the 271st richest man in the world, with a net worth of $1.8 billion.{{cite web|url=http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Four-Indian-Americans-make-it-to-Forbes-list/219923/|title=Four Indian Americans make it to Forbes list|publisher=www.expressindia|access-date=February 18, 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080216203023/http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Four-Indian-Americans-make-it-to-Forbes-list/219923/| archive-date= February 16, 2008 | url-status= live}} In 2009, he was no longer on the billionaires list, but returned to the list in 2011, with a net worth of $1.0 billion.{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/amar-bose|title=Amar Bose's profile|work=www.forbes.com|access-date=April 2, 2011}}

The company Bose founded employed 11,700 people worldwide {{asof|2016|lc=y}} and produces products for home, car, and professional audio, as well as conducting basic research in acoustics and other fields. Bose never took his company public, and since the company is privately held Bose was able to pursue risky long-term research. In a 2004 interview in Popular Science magazine, he said: "I would have been fired a hundred times at a company run by MBAs. But I never went into business to make money. I went into business so that I could do interesting things that hadn't been done before."

Bose said that his best ideas usually came to him in a flash. "These innovations are not the result of rational thought; it's an intuitive idea."{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fwAAAAAAMBAJ&dq=bose+shock+absorber+leaps+curb&pg=PA64|title=Popular Science|first=Bonnier|last=Corporation|date=December 10, 2004|publisher=Bonnier Corporation|via=Google Books}}

Personal life

He married Prema Bose but they later divorced.{{when|date=April 2014}} They had two children. Later in life, he married Ursula Bolthauser. Bose did not practice any religion, though he used to meditate for a short while every day.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWn6j7NqHJA&nohtml5=False| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115214425/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWn6j7NqHJA&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=2020-11-15 | url-status=dead|title= Amar Bose- Documentary|website = YouTube|date= January 8, 2015}} His son Vanu Bose was the founder and CEO of Vanu Inc., a software-defined radio technology company.{{cite news | first = M. J. A. | last = Shenoy | title = Bose And Bose Vs MIT | date = 1999-07-26 | url = http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/jul/26us.htm | work = Rediff | access-date = 2012-02-01}}

Bose died on July 12, 2013, at the age of 83 in Wayland, Massachusetts.{{cite news|last=Rifkin|first=Glenn|title=Amar G. Bose, Acoustic Engineer and Inventor, Dies at 83|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/business/amar-g-bose-acoustic-engineer-and-inventor-dies-at-83.html?_r=0|newspaper=New York Times|date=July 12, 2013}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324694904578602320243502316|title=Amar Bose, Pioneer of High-End Audio, Dies at 83|first=Stephen|last=Miller|newspaper=Wall Street Journal |date=July 12, 2013|via=www.wsj.com}}{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/amar-bose-of-sound-is-dead-at-83/article4911652.ece |title=Amar, Bose of sound, is dead at 83 |work=The Hindu |date=1929-11-02 |access-date=2013-07-16|last1=Lakshman |first1=Narayan |last2=Mukunth |first2=Vasudevan }}

Teaching and legacy

In addition to running his company, Bose remained a professor at MIT until 2001. He earned the Baker Teaching Award in 1963–64, and further teaching awards over the years. The Bose Award for Excellence in Teaching (1989), and later the Junior Bose Award (1995) were established in his honor, to recognize outstanding teaching in the MIT School of Engineering.{{cite news|last=Nickerson|first=Nate|title=Amar Bose '51, SM '52, ScD '56, Bose Corporation's founder, has died at 83|url=http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2013/obit-amar-bose-0712|access-date=2014-04-21|newspaper=MIT News|date=July 12, 2013}} Former students have stated that his classes helped them gain life skills and problem solving skills that have served them throughout their careers.

Bose was the doctoral advisor to MIT professor Alan V. Oppenheim,{{Cite web|title=Alan Oppenheim - The Mathematics Genealogy Project|url=https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=82829|access-date=2021-07-09|website=mathgenealogy.org}} who is well known for his work on digital signal processing and his books on signals and systems.{{Cite web|title=Alan V. Oppenheim|url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/author/37284205600|access-date=2021-07-09}} Oppenheim dedicated one of his books to Bose and described him with these words: "What I learned from him about teaching, research, and life over the many decades of our relationship affected me in ways too numerous to describe. He set the highest standards in everything that he did, and his accomplishments as a teacher, an inventor, and an entrepreneur are legendary."{{Cite book|last=Oppenheim|first=Alan V.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/895256451|title=Signals, systems & inference|date=2016|others=George C. Verghese|isbn=978-0-13-394328-3|location=Boston|oclc=895256451}}

In 2011, Bose donated a majority of the company's non-voting shares to MIT on the condition that the shares never be sold.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/business/30bose.html |title=Gift to MIT from Amar Bose Raises Tax Questions by Stephanie Strom |work=New York Times |date=April 30, 2011}} Because these shares are non-voting, MIT does not participate in operations or governance of Bose Corporation.

Honors and awards

Fellow, IEEE, 1972 – for contributions to loudspeaker design, two-state amplifier-modulators, and nonlinear systems.
Honorary member, Audio Engineering Society, 1985.
Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music, 1994{{cite web |last1=Liz |first1=Lupton |title=Academy Award-Winning Composer A. R. Rahman to Receive Honorary Doctorate from Berklee {{!}} Berklee |url=https://college.berklee.edu/news/academy-award-winning-composer-ar-rahman-receive-honorary-doctorate-berklee |website=college.berklee.edu |publisher=Berklee Music College |access-date=17 November 2021 |language=en}}
Bose was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2008.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-26 |title=National Inventors Hall of Fame Inductee Amar Bose and the Audio System |url=https://www.invent.org/inductees/amar-bose |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=www.invent.org |language=en}}
The 2010 IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award, for "outstanding contributions to consumer electronics in sound reproduction, industrial leadership, and engineering education".{{cite web|url=http://www.ieee.org/documents/maxwell_rl.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619221322/http://ieee.org/documents/maxwell_rl.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 19, 2010|title=IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award Recipients|publisher=IEEE |access-date={{Format date|2011|10|4}} }}
In 2011, he was listed at #9 on the MIT150 list of the top 150 innovators and ideas from MIT.
Beryllium Lifetime Achievement Award, Association of Loudspeaker Manufacturing & Acoustics International, 2014.
Founders Award at The Asian Awards 2015.{{Cite web |last=ASM |date=2015-03-11 |title=Acoustics Engineer Dr. Amar Bose, To Be Honoured With Prestigious Founders Award at The Asian Awards |url=https://aseantechsec.com/acoustics-engineer-dr-amar-bose-honoured-prestigious-founders-award-asian-awards/ |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=ASEAN Technology & Security Magazine |language=en-US}}

References

External links

{{MathGenealogy |id=82828 |title=Amar Gopal Bose}}
{{cite web|url=http://calcuttaweb.com/nri/Amar_Gopal_Bose.shtml |title=Short biography of Amar Gopal Bose|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031210192310/http://calcuttaweb.com/nri/Amar_Gopal_Bose.shtml |archive-date=December 10, 2003 }}
{{cite web|url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/bose.html |title=Bose at MIT|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030819065422/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/bose.html |archive-date=August 19, 2003 }}
{{cite web|url=http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/38918/148082096-MIT.pdf?sequence=2 |title=Doctoral Thesis}}
{{cite web |url=http://www.bose.com/controller?event=VIEW_STATIC_PAGE_EVENT&url=/about/history/index.jsp |title=A History of Bose |access-date=October 10, 2006 |archive-date=March 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130325233308/http://www.bose.com/controller?event=view_static_page_event&url=/about/history/index.jsp |url-status=dead }}
{{Cite web |url=http://www.discover.com/issues/oct-04/departments/discover-dialogue/ |title=Discover Dialogue: Amar G. Bose |access-date=September 24, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061217074642/http://www.discover.com/issues/oct-04/departments/discover-dialogue/ |archive-date=December 17, 2006 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}
{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2007/10/bose_qa |title=Bose Founder Discusses Audio Perfection and Digital Music|magazine=Wired |last1=Jones |first1=Karen }}
{{cite web|url=http://www.reflections-shivanand.blogspot.com/2007/07/amar-bose-portrait.html |work=Business India |title=Interview |date=July 2007}}