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Who was the greatest contributor to the field of electromagnetic waves?

Former Staff Member
The IET Electromagnetics Network had their very first webinar on the 16th June “Electromagnetic Waves: Successfully Surfing the Subject” (now available on demand) which took everyone through a historical perspective and explained how a variety of basic experiments with magnets, electrical currents and electrical circuits gave rise to a series of simple rules defining how electrical and magnetic phenomena behave and how they are fundamentally interlinked.  


Andrew Chugg (the speaker) posed a question to the audience: 
“Who do you think was the greatest contributor to the field of electromagnetic waves?”


The audience favourite? Well that was James Clerk-Maxwell by a landslide!


But did Maxwell really contribute the most? More than Faraday or Einstein?


Who do you think was the greatest contributor to electromagnetics?



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  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    While Maxwell takes all the 'bounty points' in unifying the electromagnetic theory, personally I think the greatest contribution has to be of Heinrich Hertz, who in his very short life, actually proved the existence of electromagnetic waves. As Andrew mentioned during his presentation that although Hertz didn't think much of his own discovery, it led to all sorts of follow-up studies and experimentations. As a result of that, we all enjoy wireless communications today, which in my view wouldn't have been possible had Hertz not discovered the 'waves'.
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  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    While Maxwell takes all the 'bounty points' in unifying the electromagnetic theory, personally I think the greatest contribution has to be of Heinrich Hertz, who in his very short life, actually proved the existence of electromagnetic waves. As Andrew mentioned during his presentation that although Hertz didn't think much of his own discovery, it led to all sorts of follow-up studies and experimentations. As a result of that, we all enjoy wireless communications today, which in my view wouldn't have been possible had Hertz not discovered the 'waves'.
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