Michael Faraday (1791-1867), English chemist and experimental physicist, who, with the discovery of electro-magnetic induction, devised the first electric motor 1821) the first electrical generator (or dynamo) in 1831 and the transformer. His successful research was crucial in allowing electricity to be transformed from a curiosity into a powerful new technology. He worked at the Royal Institution, London, rising from a laboratory assistant to Humphrey Davy in 1813, to being made professor of chemistry at the Institution in 1833 where he discovered the organic molecule benzene. With the success of the lectures he gave at the Royal Institution he popularized science amongst the public.