Retrospective: Ampère: Father of electrodynamics: The master mathematician, teacher, and practitioner of electrical science is celebrated on the 200th anniversary of his birth

In 1789, at the age of 14, André-Marie Ampere witnessed the murder of his father, the mayor of Lyon, by a mob during the “Reign of Terror,” following the French Revolution, when every titled person or official of the overthrown regime was subject to execution or imprisonment without trial. The trauma of this experience, plus the death of his wife in 1803, made him an embittered and reclusive person for most of his life. But it was, perhaps, this introversion that spurred him to the single-minded pursuit of the hallmark discoveries and experimentation in electrical science that have earned him a special niche in the gallery of modern scientific history.