Luigi Galvani

Luigi Galvani was an Italian physician, physicist, biologist, and philosopher who spent his career chasing animal electricity. In 1780 he ran a voltage through a dead frog and watched its legs kick, a spasm that cracked open bioelectricity as a field. The work followed earlier experiments by John Walsh and Hugh Williamson, but Galvani's frog became the canonical image. He was born on 9 September 1737 and died on 4 December 1798, his name now worn by every galvanized surface and galvanometer that carries current.