Portal:Electronics/Selected biography

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André-Marie Ampère (January 22, 1775 – June 10, 1836), was a French physicist who is generally credited as one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism. The SI unit of measurement of electric current, the ampere, is named after him, as well as Ampère's law. Ampère's fame mainly rests on the service that he rendered to science in establishing the relations between electricity and magnetism, and in developing the science of electromagnetism, or, as he called it, electrodynamics. He died at Marseille and is buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris.

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James Watt (19 January 1736 – 19 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor and engineer whose improvements to the steam engine were fundamental to the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution. Improving on the design of the 1711 Newcomen engine, the Watt steam engine, developed in 1765 offered a dramatic increase in fuel efficiency. Watt was ranked first, tying with Edison, among 229 significant figures in the history of technology by Charles Murray's survey of historiometry presented in his book Human Accomplishments. Watt was ranked 22nd in Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. The SI unit of power, the watt, is named after him.

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Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 - 7 January 1943) was an inventor, electrical and mechanical engineer known for his patents and theoretical work that contributed to modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution systems and the AC induction motor. His contribution was recognized and the derived SI unit measuring magnetic flux density or magnetic induction (commonly known as the magnetic field ${\displaystyle B\,}$), the tesla, was named in his honor.

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Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (February 18, 1745 - March 5, 1827) was an Italian physicist known especially for the development of the electric battery in 1800. In 1775 he devised the electrophorus, a device that produced a static electric charge. In 1776-77 he studied the chemistry of gases, discovered methane, and devised experiments such as the ignition of gases by an electric spark in a closed vessel. In 1881 an important electrical unit, the volt, was named in his honor. The Toyota Alessandro Volta is named after Volta. Volta Crater on the Moon is also named after him.

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Georg Simon Ohm, (March 16, 1789 - July 6, 1854) a German physicist, was born in Erlangen and educated at the university there. His most important finding was Ohm's Law, which he first published in his pamphlet Die galvanische Kette mathematisch bearbeitet, in 1827. This work, the germ of which had appeared during the two preceding years in the journals of Schweigger and Poggendorff, has exerted an important influence on the development of the theory and applications of electric current. Ohm's name was adopted as the SI unit of resistance, the ohm (symbol Ω).

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Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (February 22, 1857 - January 1, 1894) was the German physicist and mechanician for whom the hertz, an SI unit, is named. In 1888, he was the first to demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic radiation by building an apparatus to produce UHF radio waves. Hertz helped establish the photoelectric effect when he noticed that a charged object loses its charge more readily when illuminated by ultraviolet light. The Hertzian cone was first described by Hertz as a type of wave-front propagation through various media. His experiments help expand the field of electromagnetism transmission and his apparatus was developed further by others in the history of radio.

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James Prescott Joule, FRS (December 24, 1818 – October 11, 1889) was an English physicist, born in Sale. Joule studied the nature of heat, and discovered its relationship to mechanical work (see energy). This led to the theory of conservation of energy, which led to the development of the first law of thermodynamics. The SI unit of work, the joule, is named after him. He worked with Lord Kelvin to develop the absolute scale of temperature, made observations on magnetostriction, and found the relationship between the current through a resistance and the heat dissipated, now called Joule's law.

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Joseph Henry (December 17, 1797 – May 13, 1878) was a Scottish-American scientist. During his lifetime, he was considered one of the greatest American scientists since Benjamin Franklin. While building electromagnets, he discovered the electromagnetic phenomenon of self-inductance. He also discovered mutual inductance independently of Faraday, though Faraday was the first to publish his results. His work on the electromagnetic relay was the basis of the electrical telegraph, jointly invented by Samuel Morse and Charles Wheatstone. The SI unit of inductance, the henry, is named after him.

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Michael Faraday, FRS (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867) was an English chemist and physicist who contributed significantly to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. He established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena. It was largely due to his efforts that electricity became viable for use in technology. The SI unit of capacitance, the farad, is named after him, as is the Faraday constant, the charge on a mole of electrons (about 96,485 coulombs). Faraday's law of induction states that a magnetic field changing in time creates a proportional electromotive force.

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Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices which greatly influenced life worldwide into the 21st century. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the process of invention, and can therefore be credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history, holding 1,097 U.S. patents, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

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Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (April 23, 1858 – October 4, 1947) was a German physicist. He is considered to be the founder of quantum theory, and therefore one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century. In 1894 Planck turned his attention to the problem of black-body radiation. By interpolating between Wien's law^{[disambiguation needed]} and the Rayleigh–Jeans law, Planck found the famous Planck black-body radiation law, which described the experimentally observed black-body spectrum very well. The discovery of Planck's constant enabled him to define a new universal set of physical units (such as the Planck length and the Planck mass), all based on fundamental physical constants.

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Carl Friedrich Gauss (Gauß) (30 April 1777 – 23 February 1855) was a German mathematician and scientist of profound genius who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, magnetism, astronomy and optics. Sometimes known as "the prince of mathematicians" and "greatest mathematician since antiquity", Gauss had a remarkable influence in many fields of mathematics and science and is ranked as one of history's most influential mathematicians. Gauss was a child prodigy, and made his first ground-breaking mathematical discoveries while still a teenager. The cgs unit for magnetic induction was named gauss in his honor.

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Hans Christian Ørsted (August 14, 1777 – March 9, 1851) was a Danish physicist and chemist, influenced by the thinking of Immanuel Kant. He is best known for discovering the relationship between electricity and magnetism known as electromagnetism. In April 1820 he noticed a compass needle deflected from magnetic north when the electric current from the battery he was using was switched on and off. This deflection convinced him that magnetic fields radiate from all sides of a live wire just as light and heat do. The CGS unit of magnetic induction (oersted) is named in honor of his contributions to the field of electromagnetism.

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Charles Augustin de Coulomb (June 14, 1736 – August 23, 1806) was a French physicist, born in Angoulême, France. Coulomb is distinguished in the history of mechanics and of electricity and magnetism. Coulomb explained the laws of attraction and repulsion between electric charges and magnetic poles, although he did not find any relationship between the two phenomena. He thought that the attraction and repulsion were due to different kinds of fluids. The SI unit of charge, the coulomb, and Coulomb's law are named after him.

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Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (March 12, 1824 – October 17, 1887) was a German physicist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy, and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects. He coined the term "black body" radiation in 1862, and two sets of independent concepts in both circuit theory and thermal emission are named "Kirchhoff's laws" after him. Kirchhoff formulated his circuit laws, which are now ubiquitous in electrical engineering, in 1845, while still a student. He proposed his law of thermal radiation in 1859, and gave a proof in 1861.

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Sir Joseph John Thomson, OM, FRS (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) often known as J. J. Thomson, was an English physicist. Thomson is credited for the discovery of the electron, of isotopes, and the invention of the mass spectrometer. Thomson conducted a series of experiments with cathode ray tubes which led him to the discovery of electrons and subatomic particles.

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Guglielmo Marchese Marconi, GCVO (25 April 1874-20 July 1937) was an Italian inventor, best known for his development of a practical radiotelegraph system, which served as the foundation for the establishment of numerous affiliated companies worldwide. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun, "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy". While growing up, Marconi had an intense early interest in science, and was especially fascinated by electricity.

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Alexander Graham Bell ( March 3,1847 – August 2, 1922 ) was an outstanding scientist, inventor, and innovator. Born and brought up in Scotland, he emigrated to Canada, and later, the United States. Over the years, his work and efforts were expressed between both countries. Bell is widely acclaimed as the prime developer of the telephone, with considerable honourable mention to Antonio Meucci and Philipp Reis. In addition to Bell's work in telecommunications, he was responsible for important advances in aviation and hydrofoil technology.

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Shannon c. 1950s

Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, computer scientist, cryptographer and inventor known as the "father of information theory" and as the "father of the Information Age". Shannon was the first to describe the Boolean gates (electronic circuits) that are essential to all digital electronic circuits, and was one of the founding fathers of artificial intelligence. Shannon is credited with laying the foundations of the Information Age.

At the University of Michigan, Shannon dual degreed, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in both electrical engineering and mathematics in 1936. A 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in electrical engineering, his thesis concerned switching circuit theory, demonstrating that electrical applications of Boolean algebra could construct any logical numerical relationship, thereby establishing the theory behind digital computing and digital circuits. The thesis has been claimed to be the most important master's thesis of all time, as in 1985, Howard Gardner described it as "possibly the most important, and also the most famous, master's thesis of the century", while Herman Goldstine described it as "surely ... one of the most important master's theses ever written ... It helped to change digital circuit design from an art to a science." It has also been called the "birth certificate of the digital revolution", and it won the 1939 Alfred Noble Prize. Shannon then graduated with a PhD in mathematics from MIT in 1940, with his thesis focused on genetics, with it deriving important results, but it went unpublished. (Full article...)

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Zobel in his laboratory

Otto Julius Zobel (October 20, 1887 – January 1970) was an electrical engineer who worked for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) in the early part of the 20th century. Zobel's work on filter design was revolutionary and led, in conjunction with the work of John R. Carson, to significant commercial advances for AT&T in the field of frequency-division multiplex (FDM) telephone transmissions.

Although much of Zobel's work has been superseded by more modern filter designs, it remains the basis of filter theory and his papers are still referenced today. Zobel invented the m-derived filter and the constant-resistance filter, which remain in use. (Full article...)

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Muntz in 1975

Earl William "Madman" Muntz (January 3, 1914 – June 21, 1987) was an American businessman and engineer who sold and promoted cars and consumer electronics in the United States from the 1930s until his death in 1987. He was a pioneer in television commercials with his oddball "Madman" persona; an alter ego who generated publicity with his unusual costumes, stunts, and outrageous claims. Muntz also pioneered car stereos by creating the Muntz Stereo-Pak, better known as the 4-track cartridge, a predecessor to the 8-track cartridge developed by Lear Industries.

He invented the practice that came to be known as Muntzing, which involved simplifying otherwise complicated electronic devices. Muntz produced and marketed the first black-and-white television receivers to sell for less than $100, and created one of the earliest functional widescreen projection TVs. He was credited with coining the abbreviation "TV" for television, although the term had earlier been in use in call letters for stations such as WCBS-TV. A high school dropout, Muntz made fortunes by selling automobiles, TV receivers, and car stereos and tapes. A 1968 Los Angeles Times article noted that in one year he sold $72 million worth of cars; five years later he sold $55 million worth of TV receivers, and in 1967 he sold $30 million worth of car stereos and tapes. (Full article...)