Charles Augustin de Coulomb

Charles Augustin de Coulomb
French, France
June 14, 1736, Angouleme, France - August 23, 1806, Paris, France, (aged 70)
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb was a French physicist best known for the formulation of Coulomb's law, which defines the force between two electrical charges and is, in fact, one of the principal forces in atomic reactions. Performed extensive research on the friction encountered in machinery and windmills, the elasticity of metal and silk fibers, and the description of the electrostatic force of attraction and repulsion. He also did important work on friction.
The SI unit of electric charge, the coulomb, was named in his honor in 1880.

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla
Serbian American, New York, U.S
July 9/10, 1856 - January 7, 1943
Often regarded as one of the most innovative and inventive individuals in the history of the sciences. He was the first to introduce the alternating-current machine, removing the need for commutator bars of dc machines. After emigrating to the United States in 1884, he sold a number of his patents on ac machines, transformers, and induction coils (including the Tesla coil as we know it today) to the Westinghouse Electric Company. Some say that his most important discovery was made at his laboratory in Colorado Springs, where in 1900 he discovered terrestrial stationary waves. The range of his discoveries and inventions is too extensive to list here but extends from lighting systems to polyphase power systems to a wireless world broadcasting system.

Wilhelm Eduard Weber

Wilhelm Eduard Weber
German, Germany
October 24, 1804 - June 23, 1891
An important contributor to the establishment of a system of absolute units for the electrical sciences, which was beginning to become a very active area of research and development. Established a definition of electric current in an electromagnetic system based on the magnetic field produced by the current. He was politically active and, in fact, was dismissed from the faculty of the University of Gottingen for protesting the suppression of the constitution by the King of Hanover in 1837. However, he found other faculty positions and eventually returned to Gottingen as director of the astronomical observatory. Received honors from England, France, and Germany, including the Copley Medal of the Royal Society.

Carl Friedrich Gauss

Carl Friedrich Gauss
German, Germany
April 30, 1777 - February 23, 1855
Carl Friedrich Gauss is a German mathematician and physicist who has made significant contributions to many fields of mathematics and natural sciences. Gauss is sometimes referred to as "the greatest mathematician" and "the greatest mathematician since ancient times". He has had an extraordinary influence on many fields of Mathematics and science and is one of the most influential mathematicians in history.

Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday
Englishman, London, United Kingdom
September 22, 1791 - August 25, 1867
English scientist, physicist and chemist Michael Faraday is known for his many experiments that contributed greatly to the understanding of electromagnetism. Faraday, who became one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century, began his career as a chemist. His major contribution, however, was in the field of electricity and magnetism . He was the first to produce an electric current from a magnetic field, invented the first electric motor and dynamo.
French physicist Andre-Marie Ampere founded and electromagnetism. His name endures in everyday life in the ampere, the unit for measuring electric current.
On September 18, 1820, introduced a new field of study, electrodynamics, devoted to the effect of electricity in motion, including the interaction between currents in adjoining conductors and the interplay of the surrounding magnetic fields. Constructed the first solenoid and demonstrated how it could behave like a magnet (the first electromagnet). Suggested the name galvanometer for an instrument designed to measure current levels.

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei
Italian, Italy
February 15, 1564 - January 8, 1642
Galileo Galilei was an Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion, astronomy, and strength of materials and to the development of the scientific method. His formulation of (circular) inertia, the law of falling bodies, and parabolic trajectories marked the beginning of a fundamental change in the study of motion.

Georg Simon Ohm

Georg Simon Ohm
Erlangen, Germany
March 16, 1789 - July 6, 1854
Georg Simon Ohm (1787-1854), a German physicist, in 1826 experimentally determined the most basic law relating voltage and current for a resistor. Ohm's work was initially denied by critics.
Born of humble beginnings in Erlangen, Bavaria, Ohm threw himself into electrical research. His efforts resulted in his famous law. He was awarded the Copley Medal in 1841 by the Royal Society of London. In 1849, he was given the Professor of Physics chair by the University of Munich. To honor him, the unit of resistance was named the ohm.

Count Alessandro Volta

Count Alessandro Volta
Italian (Como, Pavia), Italy
February 18, 1745 - March 5, 1827
Count Alessandro Volta was a Italian scientist who contributed in the development of an electrical energy source from chemical action in 1800.
For the first time, electrical energy was available on a continuous basis and could be used for practical purposes. He also developed the first condenser known today as the capacitor. He has invited to Paris to demonstrate the voltaic cell to Napoleon. The International Electrical Congress meeting in Paris in 1881 honored his efforts by choosing the volt as the unit of measure for electromotive force.