Amar Bose

Amar Gopal Bose (/boʊz/; 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 (MIT) for over 45 years.[1] He was also the founder and chairman of Bose Corporation.

This article is about the American engineer and founding chairman of Bose Corporation. For other people named Bose, see Bose (surname). For other uses of the name, see Bose.

Amar Bose
Born
Amar Gopal Bose

(1929-11-02)November 2, 1929
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedJuly 12, 2013(2013-07-12) (aged 83)
Wayland, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materMIT (SB, SM, ScD)
OccupationEngineer, entrepreneur, founder of Bose Corporation
Net worth$1 billion (2011)
Spouse(s)Ursula Boltshauser (widowed)
Prema Bose (divorced)
ChildrenVanu Bose
Maya Bose

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.[2]

Early life and education

Bose was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,[3] to a Bengali Hindu father, Noni Gopal Bose and an American mother of French and German ancestry, Charlotte. His father was an Indian freedom revolutionary[4] who, having been imprisoned for his political activities, fled Bengal in the 1920s in order to avoid further persecution by the British colonial police.[5] His mother, Charlotte, is described as an American schoolteacher of French and German ancestry,[6] but Bose described her as "more Bengali than me". She was a vegetarian and deeply interested in Vedanta and Hindu philosophy.[7]

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.[8]

After graduating from Abington Senior High School in Abington, Pennsylvania, Bose enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with an SB (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, Amar Bose became an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his early years as a professor, Bose bought a high-end stereo speaker system in 1956 and he 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, Y. W. 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.

The company Bose founded employed 11,700 people worldwide as of 2016 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."[9]

Starting 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.[9]

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."[10]

In 2007, he was listed in Forbes 400 as the 271st richest man in the world, with a net worth of $1.8 billion.[11] 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.[12]

Personal life

He married Prema Bose but they later divorced. They had two children, Vanu and Maya. He had one grandchild, Kamala. Amar Bose did not practice any religion, though he used to meditate for a short while every day.[13] Vanu Bose was the founder and CEO of a software-defined radio technology company.[14]

Bose died on July 12, 2013 at the age of 83 in Wayland, Massachusetts.[1][15][16]

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.[17] Former students have stated that his classes helped them gain life skills and problem solving skills that have served them throughout their careers.[1]

In 2011, Bose donated a majority of the company's non-voting shares to MIT on the condition that the shares never be sold.[18] Because these shares are non-voting, MIT does not participate in operations or governance of Bose Corporation.[17]

Honors and awards
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gollark: That key SHOULD only let you issue new nigh-useless keys and view the reports.
gollark: `IgjuLVkKGYiyDIckqY_7` is the public-access key.
gollark: https://osmarks.tk/wsthing/admin/reports
gollark: That's the incident reports UI, yes.

References
  1. Rifkin, Glenn (July 12, 2013). "Amar G. Bose, Acoustic Engineer and Inventor, Dies at 83". New York Times.
  2. "Amar Bose '51 makes stock donation to MIT". MIT. April 29, 2011. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
  3. https://www.bose.com/en_us/about_bose/innovations_achievements.html
  4. "Rich & Famous In The US | Padma Rao Sundarji". Outlookindia.com. May 22, 1996. Archived from the original on August 17, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2012.
  5. Lemley, Brad (October 1, 2004). "Discover Dialogue: Amar G. Bose". Discover Magazine. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  6. Distinguished Asian Americans: A Biographical Dictionary – Google Boeken. Books.google.com. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  7. Shivanand Kanavi (July 26, 2007). "reflections: Amar Bose-A Portrait". Reflections-shivanand.blogspot.com. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  8. Siliconeer: January 2005
  9. Clynes, Tom (July 15, 2013). "The Curious Genius Of Amar Bose". Popular Science. Popular Science. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  10. Popular Science Dec 2004
  11. "Four Indian Americans make it to Forbes list". www.expressindia. Archived from the original on February 16, 2008. Retrieved February 18, 2008.
  12. "Amar Bose's profile". www.forbes.com. Retrieved April 2, 2011.
  13. "Amar Bose- Documentary". January 8, 2015.
  14. Shenoy, M. J. A. (July 26, 1999). "Bose And Bose Vs MIT". Rediff. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
  15. Amar Bose, Pioneer of High-End Audio, Dies at 83 (Subscription required.)
  16. "Amar, Bose of sound, is dead at 83". The Hindu. November 2, 1929. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  17. Nickerson, Nate (July 12, 2013). "Amar Bose '51, SM '52, ScD '56, Bose Corporation's founder, has died at 83". MIT News. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  18. Gift to MIT from Amar Bose Raises Tax Questions by Stephanie Strom. New York Times. April 30, 2011.
  19. http://www.indiawest.com/entertainment/global/a-r-rahman-to-receive-honorary-doctorate-from-berklee/article_badd2882-0ed2-11e4-8fa6-001a4bcf887a.html
  20. "IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award Recipients" (PDF). IEEE. Retrieved October 4, 2011.
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