Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta

Place: Como

Born: 1745

Death: 1827

Biography:

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was an Italian physicist and chemist who was a pioneer of electricity and power. He is credited as the inventor of the electric battery and the discoverer of methane. Volta was born in Como, Italy in 1745 and died in 1827. He invented the voltaic pile in 1799, and reported the results of his experiments in 1800 in a two-part letter to the president of the Royal Society. Volta's invention sparked a great amount of scientific excitement and led others to conduct similar experiments, which eventually led to the development of the field of electrochemistry. Volta held the chair of experimental physics at the University of Pavia for nearly 40 years and was widely idolised by his students. He was awarded numerous honours by Napoleon Bonaparte and was widely admired by the scientific community of his time. The SI unit of electric potential is named the volt in his honour.