Andr-Marie Ampre (1775-1836) Although he was not the first person to observe a connection between electricity and magnetism,

, Andr-Marie Ampre was the first scientist to attempt to theoretically explain and mathematically describe the phenomenon. His contributions laid the groundwork upon which the science of electrodynamics (a term coined by Ampre, but now more commonly referred to as electromagnetics) has been built.

Felix Bloch (1905-1983) Physicist Felix Bloch developed a non-destructive technique for precisely observing and measuring the magnetic properties of nuclear particles. He called his technique "nuclear induction," but nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) soon became the preferred term for the method, which was a notable advance upon an earlier technique developed by Isidor Rabi. Bloch received half of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1952 for this work, sharing the award with Edward Purcell, who independently developed a similar method of achieving and detecting nuclear magnetic resonance at approximately the same time. NMR is the basis of an important medical imaging technique, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Anders Celsius (1701-1744) Anders Celsius is most familiar as the inventor of the temperature scale that bears his name. The Swedish astronomer, however, also is notable as the first person to make a connection between the radiant atmospheric phenomenon known as the aurora borealis, or the northern lights, and the magnetic field of the Earth. He published his studies of the aurora borealis, including his accurate speculation regarding its relation to magnetism, in 1733

Paul A. M. Dirac (1902-1984) Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was an outstanding twentieth century theoretical physicist whose work was fundamental to the development of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics jointly with Erwin Schrdinger in 1933 for his contributions to atomic theory, Dirac's prediction of the existence of antimatter having been experimentally proven by that time

Willem Einthoven (1860-1927) Willem Einthoven invented a string galvanometer that could be used to directly record the electrical activity of the heart. The investigations he carried out with the device enabled him to determine that graphical recordings of heart activity, or electrocardiograms as they came to be known, generally conform to a basic type, that individuals produce their own characteristic electrocardiograms typically conforming to this type, and that deviations are often associated with heart disease. For his discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram, Einthoven was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1924.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) A self-educated man with a brilliant mind, Michael Faraday was born in a hardscrabble neighborhood in London. Through the combination of insatiable curiosity and a powerful will to succeed, he transcended his austere beginnings to conduct some of the most groundbreaking work of his day, discovering the principles that lay behind two key instruments of applied electricity: electromagnetic induction, which led to the transformer, and magnetoelectric induction, which led to the generator. For these contributions to science (and many others), Faraday is one of the most revered scientists of the 19th century.

Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) Luigi Galvani was a pioneer in the field of electrophysiology, the branch of science concerned with electrical phenomena in the body. His experiments with dissected frogs and electrical charges led him to suggest the existence of a previously unknown type of electricity, which he dubbed animal electricity. Galvani's explanation of his experimental findings was controversial and inspired Alessandro Volta to develop an alternate viewpoint as well as to invent the voltaic pile.

Joseph Henry (1797-1878) Joseph Henry was an American scientist who pioneered the construction of strong, practical electromagnets and built one of the first electromagnetic motors. During his experiments with electromagnetism, Henry discovered the property of inductance in electrical circuits, which was first recognized at about the same time in England by Michael Faraday, who was the first to publish on the subject. In honor of Henry, the SI unit of inductance bears his name. One henry equals the inductance of a circuit with an induced voltage of one volt and an inducing current that changes one ampere per second.

James Joule (1818-1889) James Prescott Joule experimented with engines, electricity and heat throughout his life. Joule's findings resulted in his development of themechanical theory of heat and Joule's law, which quantitatively describes the rate at which heat energy is produced from electric energy by the resistance in a circuit. Initially many 19th century scientists were skeptical of Joule's work, but his efforts proved fundamental to the modern understanding of thermodynamics . William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) William Thomson, known as Lord Kelvin, was one of the most eminent scientists of the nineteenth century and is best known today for inventing the international system of absolute temperature that bears his name. He made contributions to an array of different fields, including electricity, magnetism, thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, geophysics and telegraphy, publishing more than 650 papers during his lifetime. Thomson was also an extremely skilled engineer who patented around 70 inventions and was involved heavily in the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable.

Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz (1804-1865) At the turn of the 19th century, scientists were beginning to gain a rudimentary understanding of electricity and magnetism, but they knew almost nothing about the relationship between the two. Baltic German physicist Heinrich Lenz took the first step toward filling this gap with his formulation of Lenzs law, his most enduring contribution to physics.

Walther Meissner (1882-1974) Walther Meissner discovered while working with Robert Ochsenfeld that superconductors expel relatively weak magnetic fields from their interior and are strongly diamagnetic. This phenomenon, commonly known as the Meissner effect or the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect, is related to the generation of screening currents along the surface of the superconductor that are able to cancel out the applied magnetic field. Following this discovery, Meissner was offered and accepted the technical physics chair at the Mnich Institute of Technology in 1934.

Hans Christian rsted (1777-1851) A discovery by Hans Christian rsted forever changed the way scientists think about electricity and magnetism. While preparing to perform an experiment during a lecture at the University of Copenhagen, he found that the magnetized needle of a compass was deflected whenever the electric current through a voltaic pile (an early form of the battery) was started or stopped. This surprising occurrence was solid evidence that electricity and magnetism are related phenomena.

Edward Purcell (1912-1997) Edward Mills Purcell was an American physicist who received half of the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physics with for his development of a new method of ascertaining the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei. Known as nuclear magnetic resonance absorption, the method arose from the application of radar theory to the magnetic fields of atoms and was a significant advance over the magnetic resonance detection technique developed earlier by Isidor Rabi. Felix Bloch, with whom Purcell shared the Nobel Prize, independently made the same advance

Werner von Siemens (1816-1892) In 1866, the research of Werner von Siemens would lead to his discovery of the dynamo electric principle that paved the way for the large-scale generation of electricity through mechanical means. He reported this discovery in a paper entitled "On the conversion of mechanical energy into electric current without the use of permanent magnets" to the Berlin Academy of Sciences in early 1867. Though scientists in other countries developed the self-exciting electric generator, or dynamo, at about the same time, von Siemens appears to be the first to truly realize its significance to society. The telegraph company he co-owned, Siemens & Halske, quickly began commercial production of dynamos, eventually followed by cables, electric lighting, telephones and other electrical devices. The company he founded is now the Siemens AG electronics conglomerate

Sin-Itiro Tomonaga (1906-1979) Japanese theoretical physicist Sin-Itiro Tomonaga resolved key problems with the theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) developed by Paul Dirac in the late 1920s through the use of a mathematical technique he referred to as renormalization. Tomonaga's work did not change the basic physical foundation of Dirac's theory, which described the relationships between electrically charged particles and the electromagnetic field, but rather refined QED in order to make it consistent with the theory of special relativity and to show that the theory agrees quantitatively with results obtained experimentally to a great degree of accuracy. In 1965, Tomonaga received a portion of the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to quantum electrodynamics

Alessandro Volta (1745-1827) Alessandro Volta was an Italian scientist whose skepticism of Luigi Galvani's theory of animal electricity led him to propose that an electrical current is generated by contact between different metals. Volta's theoretical and experimental work in this area resulted in his construction of the first battery. Known as the voltaic pile, Volta's battery made available for the first time a sustainable source of electrical current. Using the innovative apparatus, a number of his contemporaries, such as William Nicholson and Sir Humphry Davy, made important scientific advances in the early 19th century

James Watt (1736-1819) The Scottish instrument maker and inventor James Watt had a tremendous impact on the shape of modern society. His improvements to the steam engine were a significant factor in the Industrial Revolution, and when the Watt engine was paired with Thomas Edison's electrical generator in the late nineteenth century, the generation of electricity on a large scale was possible for the first time. Soon after, the streets of New York and other cities were illuminated with electric lamps