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Famous Scientists and Inventors
Famous Scientists and Inventors
Famous Scientists and Inventors
Electronics Engineering
William Gilbert
William Gilbert is the one coined the word electricus, while on his pioneering
research on magnetism and static electricity. He is an English scientist, the most
distinguished man of science in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who
first to use the terms electric attraction, electric force and magnetic pole.
Benjamin Franklin
Luigi Galvani
It was Luigi Galvani who pioneered the bioelectromagnetics, with incredible work in
animal electricity. His experiment with dead frog’s leg muscles has been the
benchmark of electrical patterns and signal from tissues as the nerves and muscles.
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb had revolutionary work in the theory of attraction and
repulsion between bodies of the same and opposite electrical charge. He was able to
demonstrate an inverse square law for such forces and examine perfect conductors
and dielectrics.
Alessandro Volta
The inventions of Alessandro Volta have trademarked in electronics engineering,
especially his battery that produced a reliable, steady current of electricity. This feat
of Volta gave rise to electrochemistry, electromagnetism and the modern
applications of electricity.
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday demonstrated significant work in static electricity. He was the first
to prove that the charge only resided on the exterior of a charged conductor, and
exterior charge had no influence on anything enclosed within a conductor. He laid
the foundation of the classical field theory, and developed the first dynamo in the
form of a copper disk rotated between the poles of a permanent magnet.
Nikola Tesla
This underrated genius named Nikola Tesla invented the alternating-current
generator, the transformer, and he high voltage coil of the picture tube. He also
developed an oscillator that generated half a million volts and a wireless world
broadcasting tower. Tesla also worked on rotary engines, microwaves, radars and
loudspeakers. With all this significant engineering work, he never got the glory he
deserved during his time because he was thought to be a madman.
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi is an Italian inventor and engineer who developed the first
successful long-distance wireless telegraph. He broadcasted the first transatlantic
radio signal, which attained him partly the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Lee De Forest
It was Lee De Forest who invented the Audion vacuum tube, which made live radio
broadcasting possible before the invention of the transistor. It is now the key
component in all radio, telephone, radar, television and computer systems. He had
more than 300 patents.
Walter Schottky
A German physicist who laid work in solid-state physics and electronics, Walter
Schottky discovered an irregularity in the emission of thermions in a vacuum tube,
now known as the Schottky effect. He also developed the screen-grid tube and the
tetrode.
William B. Shockley
Nobel Prize for Physics winner William B. Shockley was responsible for the
development of the transistor, which is one of the greatest achievements in
technological history. He worked on semiconductor to control and amplify electronic
signals, with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. They developed the point-contact
transistor, and later on, the junction transistor.
Walter H. Brattain
Walter H. Brattain shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956 with William Shockley
and John Bardeen for the investigation of the properties of semiconductors and for
the development of the transistor.
John Bardeen
One of the Nobel Prize for Physics trio for their invention of the transistor, John
Bardeen won the same award in 1972 for the theory of superconductivity. He focused
on the electrical conduction in semiconductors and metals, and surface properties
of semiconductors.
Otto von Guericke
Invented the first electrostatic generator
Jack Kilby
Patented the first integrated circuit while at Texas Instruments, then later
patented the portable calculator
Robert Noyce
Further developed the integrated circuit to include more transistors on a silicon
substrate
Gordon Moore
Co-founded Intel in 1968 and known for “Moore’s Law” which observes that
integrated circuit complexity doubles every 2 years
The wire resists twisting, and how much twisting occurs tells you how much force
the attraction or repulsion exerted. Coulomb showed electrical attraction and
repulsion follow an inverse square law. The unit of charge (Coulomb) is named after
him.
Born in the old university city of Tartu, Estonia (then in Russia), He was a professor at
the University of St. Petersburg. He carried out many experiments following the lead
of Faraday.
He is memorialized by the law which bears his name – the electrodynamics action of
an induced current equally opposes the mechanical inducing action- which was
later recognized to be an expression of the conservation of energy.
He was an all round universal scientist and researcher. He was one of the 19th
centuries greatest scientists.
In 1870, after analyzing all the prevalent theories of electrodynamics, he lent his
support to Maxwell’s theory which was little known on the European continent.
Joseph Swan demonstrated his electric lamp in Britain in February 1879. The
filament used carbon and had a partial vacuum and preceded Edison’s
demonstration by six months.
He worked with Maxwell’s equations to reduce the fatigue incurred in solving them.
In the process, he created a form of vector analysis called “Operational Calculus” that
replaced the differential d/dt with the algebraic variable p, thus transforming
differential equations to algebraic equations (Laplace Transforms). This increased the
speed of solution considerably.
He also proposed the ionized air layer named after him (the Heavisids layer), that
inductance can be added to transmission lines to increase transmission distance,
and that charges will increase in mass when accelerated.
Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1865-1923)
Discovered the mathematics of hysteresis loss, thus enabling engineers of the time
to reduce magnetic loss in transformers.
He also applied the mathematics of complex numbers to AC analysis and thus put
engineering design of electrical systems on a scientific basis instead of a black art.
Along with Nikola Tesla, he is responsible for wresting the generation of power away
from Edison’s inefficient DC system to the more elegant AC system.
Discovered X rays, for which he received the first Nobel Prize for physics in 1901. He
observed that barium platinocyanide crystals across the room fluoresced whenever
he turned on a Crooke’s, or cathode-ray discharge tube, even when the tube was
shielded by thin metal sheets.
Roentgen correctly hypothesized that a previously unknown form of radiation of
very short wavelength was involved, and that these X rays (a term he coined) caused
the crystals to glow. He later demonstrated the metallurgical and medical use of X
rays which later brought a revolution in medical science.
In the year 1905, Einstein elaborated on the experimental results of Max Planck who
noticed that electromagnetic energy seemed to be emitted from radiating objects
in quantities that were discrete.
The energy of these emitted quantities – the so called “light-quanta” was directly
proportional to the frequency of the radiation which was completely contrary to
classical electromagnetic theory, based on Maxwell’s equations and the laws of
thermodynamics.
Einstein used Planck’s quantum hypothesis to describe visible electromagnetic
radiation, or light. According to Einstein’s viewpoint, light could be imagined to
consist of discrete bundles of radiation. He used this interpretation to explain the
photoelectric effect, by which certain metals emit electrons when illuminated by
light with a given frequency.
Einstein’s theory, and his subsequent elaboration of it, formed the basis for much of
Quantum Mechanics.
Also known as “The Father of the Supercomputer“, along with George Amdahl,
defined the supercomputer industry in the year 1976.
Ray Prasad is Author of the textbook Surface Mount Technology: Principles and
Practice. He is an inductee to the IPC Hall of Fame, the highest honor in Electronics
Industry for his contribution to the electronics industry. He is also the recipient of the
IPC President’s Award, SMTA Member of Distinction Award, Intel Achievement
Award, and Dieter W. Bergman IPC Fellowship Medal.
As the lead engineer, Mr. Prasad introduced SMT into airplanes and defense systems
at Boeing, and as SMT program manager, he managed the global implementation
of SMT at Intel Corporation.
References: https://gineersnow.com/engineering/electronics/famous-scientists-
inventors-shaped-electronics-engineering
https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2017/04/15/pioneers-electricity-top-10-inventors-
electrical-technologies/id=80700/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tLuDJeh8yU&t=187s