(Inducted for advancing the fundamental knowledge of electrostatics)

Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790 - INDUCTED: 1979
Contributed to science with important experiments on electricity. Introduced the concept of positive and negative charge. Discovered the electrical nature of lightning through the famous kite-experiment. Invented the lightning rod.

Charles A. Coulomb 1736-1806 - INDUCTED: 1979
French physicist. Research on electricity and magnetism. Invented torsion balance; used this to demonstrate that the force of electrostatic repulsion or attraction is proportional to the product of the charge on each sphere and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the centers of the spheres (Coulomb's Law).

William Gilbert 1544-1603 - INDUCTED: 1979
Pioneer researcher who was first to use the terms electrical attraction and electrical force. Considered to be the father of electrical studies.

Robert A. Millikan 1868-1953 - INDUCTED: 1979
American scientist. Nobel laureate. Measured the charge of the electron and gave the first precise determination of Avogadro's number (1910). Verified Einstein's photoelectric equation and worked on the determination of Plank's constant (1912-15). Pioneering work on cosmic rays.

Henry Cavendish 1731-1810 - INDUCTED: 1979
Measured the capacitance of capacitors and discovered and measured specific inductive capacity. He showed that charge is confined to the surface of a conductor and that the force between two charges is inversely proportional to the square of their separation to within 2%.

James C. Maxwell 1831-1879 - INDUCTED: 1981
Scottish physicist, organizer of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, original worker in the field of "Electricity and Magnetism", and the developer of the famous Maxwell Equations.

Karl F. Gauss 1777-1855 - INDUCTED: 1981
German Mathematician, astronomer and professor at University of Gottingen his alma mater. He is recognized as the founder of the mathematical theory of electricity. His works are published in seven volumes appearing in 1862 to 1874.

Leonard B. Loeb 1891-1978 - INDUCTED: 1987
American physicist. He has made significant contributions to the understanding of conduction through gases, including corona and spark breakdown phenomena. He published several authoritative books on electrical discharge in gases, processes of gaseous electronics and, static electrification.

(Inducted for promoting interest in the field of electrostatics)

A. D. Moore 1895-1989 - INDUCTED: 1985
Professor of Electrical Engineering, who, on retirement from the University of Michigan in 1963, embarked on a second career of teaching, demonstrating, and generally promoting interest in electrostatics, its principles, and applications. He founded the Electrostatics Society of America in 1970, authored several books on electrostatics, and traveled 160,000 miles with his famed Electrostatic Lecture-Demonstration equipment.

Bernard Vonnegut 1914 - 1997 - INDUCTED: 1998.
Atmospheric Scientist. His enthusiastic study of clouds from the ground, air and space stimulated world-wide interest and debate in cloud nucleation and electrification. He was the first to develop silver iodide for seeding clouds, showed that convective motion is one of the mechanisms for thunderstorm electrification, and was an early investigator into the phenomenon of cloud discharges to the ionosphere. 

James R. Melcher 1936 - 1991 - INDUCTED: 1999.

Professor Melcher rediscovered and popularized the field of continuum electromechanics. He was an inspiring teacher, an innovative engineer and scientist, and a prolific writer with 13 patents and over 100 journal articles. He was also a thoughtful and committed activist, who believed engineers should devote themselves to creating a better world for all of its people.

(Inducted for achievements relating to innovations of electrostatics technology in industry)

Chester F. Carlson 1906-1968 - INDUCTED: 1979
Inventor of xerography, an electrostatic photocopying process first called electrophotography. Carlson was active in developing xerographic copiers of the early 1960's.

Fredrick G. Cottrell 1877-1948 - INDUCTED: 1979
Developed the first commercially successful electrostatic precipitators. The Cottrell type precipitator is used throughout the world to remove fumes, smoke and small particles from the air.

Harold P. Ransburg 1911-1991 - INDUCTED: 1981
Inventor of the Electrostatic Coating Process. His early recognition and later development of the manner in which electrostatic fields could be applied in coating operations led the way for the widespread industrial use of electrostatics for this application.

Robert J. Van de Graaff 1901-1967 -INDUCTED: 1985
American physicist. Invented electrostatic belt generator (1931) capable of producing direct current at potentials exceeding a million volts. He pioneered applications of his generator for high energy x-rays and experiments in atomic physics. Also helped develop the tandem (multiple stage) electrostatic accelerator, a major tool for the science of nuclear physics.

Gaylord Penney 1898-1994 - INDUCTED: 1989
Invented and developed the low-voltage two-stage electric air cleaner. This became a commercially important device for removing unwanted particulates from the air in homes and workplaces.

Emory Miller 1908 - 2002 - INDUCTED: 2002
Former ESA Secretary/Treasurer, President, and lifeblood of the organization, into the Electrostatics Hall of Fame, Part III, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia for his seminal work in bringing electrostatic spraying form theory to practice.