Charles-Augustin de Coulomb- He was best known for developing Coulomb's law, the

definition of the electrostatic force of attraction and repulsion, but also did important work on
friction.

Thales of Miletus- Thales is recognised as having made a break from understanding the world
and universe by mythological explanations to instead find explanations for the existence of
natural things and phenomena by theories and hypothesis, ergo science.

Benjamin Franklin- As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and
the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is
known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove, among other inventions.

Georg Simon Ohm- best known for his Ohm's Law, which implies that the current flow
through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference (voltage) and inversely
proportional to the resistance.

Alessandro Volta- He is most famous for his invention of the electric battery. In brief he:
Invented the first electric battery which people then called the voltaic pile in 1800.

Hans Christian Oersted- chemist who is credited with some of the most important scientific
contributions of his time, including the discovery of electromagnetism.

Michael Faraday- is probably best known for his discovery of electromagnetic induction, his
contributions to electrical engineering and electrochemistry or due to the fact that he was
responsible for introducing the concept of field in physics to describe electromagnetic
interaction. But perhaps it is not so well known that he also made fundamental contributions to
the electromagnetic theory of light.

James Watt- chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam
engine with his Watt steam enginein 1781, which was fundamental to the changes brought by
the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.

Andr-Marie Ampre- one of the founders of the science of classical electromagnetism, which
he referred to as "electrodynamics". The SI unit of measurement of electric current, the ampere,
is named after him.

James Prescott Joule- studied the nature of heat and established its relationship to
mechanical work. He therefore laid the foundation for the theory of conservation of energy,
which later influenced the First Law of Thermodynamics.

Joseph Henry- While building electromagnets, he discovered the electromagnetic

phenomenon of self-inductance. He also discovered mutual inductance, independently of
Michael Faraday, but Faraday was the first to publish his results.