Short Biography of frequently mentioned Scientists

Ampère - Bohr - Boltzmann - Dirac - Einstein - Gauss - Hertz - Joule - Kelvin - Maxwell - Newton - Planck - Poisson - Schrödinger - Tesla - Volta - Watt

• André-Marie Ampère, 1775 - 1836, French mathematician and physicist. Unified the description of different electromagnetic phenomena into Ampère's law. The MKS unit Ampere is named after him.
• Niels Bohr, 1885-1962, Danish atomic physicist. Nobel prixe 1922.
• Ludwig Boltzmann, 1844 - 1906, Austrian physicist. Studied the kinetic gas theory and determined Boltzmann's constant.
• Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, 1902 - 1984, English physicist known for his pioneering work in the area of quantum-electro-dynamics. The dirac delta function and the Fermi-Dirac statistics are named after him. Nobel prize 1933.
• Albert Einstein, 1879 - 1955, German mathematician and physicist, known for his relativity theory. The Einstein relation and Bose-Einstein statistics are named after him. Nobel prize 1921.
• Enrico Fermi, 1901 - 1954, Italian physicist. The Fermi function, the fermi energy, fermions and Fermilab in Chicago are named after him. Nobel prize 1938.
• Karl Friedrich Gauss, 1777 - 1855, German mathematician and astronomer. The Gauss's law and the cgs unit of magnetic field strength, Gauss, are named after him.
• Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, 1857 - 1894, German physicist. Studied electromagnetic fields and waves. The MKS unit of frequency, the Hertz was named after him.
• James Prescott Joule, 1818 - 1889, English brewer who became a physicist. Discovered the Joule-Thompson effect together with Lord Kelvin. The MKS unit of energy, the Joule is named after him.
• Lord William Thomson Kelvin of Largs, 1824 - 1907, English mathematician and physicist. Develop basic theories of thermodynamics and defined the absolute temperature scale. The unit Kelvin is named after him.
• James Clerck Maxwell, 1831 - 1879, English mathematician and physicist. Maxwell's equations and the maxwellian distribution are named after him.
• Sir Isaac Newton, 1642 - 1725, English mathematician, physicist and astronomer. Newton rings, Newton's law and the MKS unit of pressure, the Newton, are named after him.
• Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, 1858 - 1947, German physicist. Explained the radiation from a black body and determined the value of Planck's constant.
• Siméon Denis Poisson, 1781 - 1840, French mathematician and mechanic. Named after him are the Poisson integral, Poisson's equation and the Poisson constant.
• Erwin Schrödinger, 1887 - 1961, German physicist born in Vienna. The Schrödinger equation, the basic equation of quantum-mechanics, was named after him. Nobel prize 1933.
• Nicola Tesla, 1856 - 1943, Slavic engineer and physicist. The MKS unit of magnetic field strength, the Tesla, is named after him.
• Count Allesandro Volta, 1745 - 1827, Italian physicist. Inventor of the electrometer. The MKS unit Volt is named after him.
• James Watt, 1736 - 1819, English mechanic. Invented the steam engine. The MKS unit of power, the Watt, is named after him.

This section is not meant to provide neither an elaborate nor a complete reference regarding well-known scientists. Instead, it is meant to provide a very brief description of only the most relevant scientists. Needless to say that there are many other facts and scientists which would also deserve to be included.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.