Famous Scientists and Inventors Who Shaped
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
Often referred to as the Master of Electricity, Benjamin Franklin has great
contributions in the field of electricity, and perhaps the most remembered is his kite
experiment on a thunderstorm that proved electricity and lightning are the same.
He was also able to invent the lightning rod, discover the principle of conservation of
change and identify positive and negative electrical charges.
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.
Hans Christian Ørsted
Hans Christian Ørsted is attributed to be the originator of the connection between
electricity and magnetism. His accidental discovery proved that an electric current
produces a circular magnetic field as it flows through a wire, and the findings stirred
much research into electrodynamics.
André-Marie Ampère
A French mathematician and physicist, André-Marie Ampère is considered the first
person to discover electromagnetism. Among his significant contributions is the
Ampere’s circuital law, which relates the integrated magnetic field around a closed
loop to the electric current passing through the loop.
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, Georg Simon Ohm had passionate work on the
conductivity of metals and the behavior of electrical circuits.
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.
James Prescott Joule
Now familiar to engineers as the unit of energy, Joule, or James Prescott Joule
discovered the law of conservation of energy and an experiment that further led to
the discovery of the first law of thermodynamics. He was an English physicist with
established work on the relationship between mechanical work and heat transfer.
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff
Every electronics engineer had encountered Gustav Robert Kichhoff, famous for the
Kirchhoff’s Law. He was a German physicist that helped increase the understanding
of electrical circuits, with laws of thermochemistry and thermal emission named
after him apart from circuit theory. Kirchhoff was also responsible for using
mathematics to understand the science of physics.
Sir Charles Wheatstone
Solely responsible for the device called Wheatstone bridge, Sir Charles Wheatstone
was an English physicist who experimented on the measurement of the speed of
electricity in a conductor using a revolving mirror. The device he developed can
accurately measure electrical resistance now used in most laboratories. He also
patented an early telegraph.
James Clerk Maxwell
It was James Clerk Maxell who first told that electricity and magnetism are actually,
at the deepest level, the same force – the electromagnetic force. He produced
equations called the Maxwell’s Equations that is perhaps his greatest work. Heinrich
Rudolph Hertz
A German physicist, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was the first to satisfactorily demonstrate
the existence of electromagnetic radiation waves. He did this by building an
apparatus to produce and detect them. Later, his discovery was used in the flourish
of radio waves as a medium in communication and broadcasting.
Thomas Alva Edison
With a record of 1,093 patents which comprise key and minor innovations, Thomas
Alva Edison is perhaps the most celebrated inventor in American history. Among his
early inventions include the automatic telegraph repeater, when sent telegraph
signals between unmanned stations but was never patented; the electric vote
recorder, Edison’s first patent; and the quadruplex telegraph, which is a system
capable of sending two messages simultaneously in each direction on the same
wire. Later, he developed the carbon telephone, his own system for electricity
distribution, and the wireless telegraph, among others.
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.
John Ambrose Fleming
The inventor of the oscillation diode valve or vacuum tube, John Ambrose Fleming is
the one who set the benchmark for modern electronics, which why he is regarded as
the father of modern electronics. He enabled the first wireless sets with a reasonable
performance to be manufactured.
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.
Edwin Howard Armstrong
Best credited for the invention of the frequency-modulated radio, Edwin Howard
Armstrong also has two other key innovations, which are regeneration and
superheterodyning.
Harold Stephen Black
Harold Stephen Black is an American electrical engineer who laid the negativefeedback principle now widely applied in electronics. He worked with the Western
Electric Company and Bell Telephone Laboratories. He devised the negativefeedback amplifier while trying to find a way to reduce amplifier distortion.
Philo Taylor Farnsworth
Philo Taylor Fransworth is the man who invented the electronic television, at only
age 21. He did this by smoking a glass slide with carbon and scratched a single line
on it, and placed it on a carbon arc projector and shone onto the photocathode of
the first camera tube.
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
Francis Hauksbee (1666 - 1713)
An eighteenth-century British scientist, and a member of the Royal Society. He is
best known for his work on Electricity and electrostatic repulsion. Hauksbee
discovered that if he placed a small amount of mercury in the glass of his modified
version of Otto von Guericke's electrostatic generator
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Experimented with electrical charges and magnetism, and established a
method for measuring magnetic fields
Joseph Henry
A Scottish-American scientist, he was considered one of the greatest American
scientist 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 first to publish his results.
The henry, H, is a unit of inductance named after him.
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
François Jean Dominique Arago (1786–1853)
Known as François Arago was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer,
freemason, carbonari and politician. He invented the electromagnet in 1820.
Karl Ferdinand Braun, (1850-1918)
German physicist, inventor, and Nobel Prize winner. Braun is best known for his
invention of the first oscilloscope (an electronic instrument that displays changes in
the voltage of an electric circuit) made out of a cathode-ray tube (CRT), but he also
contributed much to the study of electricity and telegraphy, or wireless
communication (see Radio), through groundbreaking research and inventions. He
shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in physics with Italian electrical engineer and inventor
Guglielmo Marconi for their work on wireless communication.
Charles Francis Brush (849 – 1929)
U.S. inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Famous for the "dynamo" (an
electrical generator) for powering arc lights. He built his first arc light before 1867. In
1879 First commercial power station opened in San Francisco, using the Charles
Brush generator and arc lights
Hans R. Camenzind (1934 – 2012)
Swiss electronics engineer best known for designing the 555 timer IC in 1970.
Willis Haviland Carrier (1876-1950)
American engineer, best known for inventing modern air conditioning. In 1911
disclosed his basic Rational Psychrometric Formulae to the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers. The formula still stands today as the basis in all fundamental
calculations for the air conditioning industry.
Henry Cavendish (1731 – 1810)
British natural philosopher, scientist, and an important experimental and theoretical
chemist and physicist who started measuring the conductivity of different materials.
Cavendish is noted for his discovery of hydrogen or what he called "inflammable air"
Charles Francois du Fay (1698 – 1739)
French chemist and superintendent of the Jardin du Roi who discovered that
electricity comes in two forms which he called resinous (-) and vitreous (+). Benjamin
Franklin and Ebenezer Kinnersley later renamed the two forms as positive and
negative.
John Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945)
English electrical engineer and physicist. He is known for inventing the first
thermionic valve or vacuum tube, the diode, then called the kenotron in 1904.
Stephen Gray (1666 – 1736)
English dyer and amateur astronomer, who was the first to systematically
experiment with electrical conduction, rather than simple generation of static
charges and investigations of the static phenomena. He was instrumental in the
discovery of the conduction of electricity in 1729
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, (1824-87)
German physicist, born in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), and educated at the
University of Königsberg. He was professor of physics at the universities of Breslau,
Heidelberg, and Berlin. With the German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, Kirchhoff
developed the modern spectroscope for chemical analysis. In 1860 the two scientists
discovered the elements cesium and rubidium by means of spectrum analysis.
Kirchhoff conducted important investigations of radiation heat transfer and also
postulated two rules, now known as Kirchhoff's laws of networks, concerning the
distribution of current in electric circuits.
Georg Von Kleist (1700-1748)
On 11 October 1745 Kleist independently invented the Kleistian jar, more commonly
known as the Leyden jar after graduate student Pieter van Musschenbroek of
Leyden. He discovered that electricity was controllable. Dutch physicist, Pieter van
Musschenbroek invented the "Leyden Jar" the first electrical capacitor. Leyden jars
store static electricity.
Charles Augustus Coulomb (1736-1806)
Invented the torsion balance in 1785. The torsion balance is a simple device – a
horizontal cross-bar is mounted on a stretched wire. A ball is then mounted on each
end of the cross bar. Given a positive or negative charge, those balls will then attract
or repel other objects that carry charges. The balls responding to these charges will
try to twist the wire holding the cross bar.
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.
Heinrich F.E. Lenz (1804-1865)
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.
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872)
He brought a practical system of telegraphy to the fore front using electromagnets,
and invented the code named after him in 1844.
Although in 1837 the development of an electric telegraph system making use of a
deflecting magnetic needle had already been developed by Sir W. F. Cooke and Sir
Charles Wheatstone, who installed the first railway telegraph system in England,
Morse overcame both electrical design flaws and information flow restrictions to
enable the telegraph to become a viable system of communication.
Hermann Lud-wig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821-1894)
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.
Sir William Crookes (1832-1919)
Investigated electrical discharges through highly evacuated “Crookes tubes” in the
year 1878. These studies laid the foundation for J. J. Thomson’s research in the late
1890s concerning discharge-tube phenomena and the electron.
He also discovered the element Thallium and made the radiometer.
Joseph Wilson Swan (1828-1914)
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.
Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925)
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.
Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen (1845-1923)
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.
The unit of radiation exposure (rad) is named after him.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
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.
Seymour Cray (1925-1996)
Also known as “The Father of the Supercomputer“, along with George Amdahl,
defined the supercomputer industry in the year 1976.
Ray Prasad (1946-Still Going 2019)
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-scientistsinventors-shaped-electronics-engineering
https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2017/04/15/pioneers-electricity-top-10-inventorselectrical-technologies/id=80700/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tLuDJeh8yU&t=187s