Charles Augustin de Coulomb was born on June 14th 1736 in Angouleme, France. Coulomb worked as a military engineer for 20 years after graduating from the military school at Mezieres in 1761. During this time when most engineering involved only practical numerical solutions he applied physics and mathematics to the study of mechanical engineering problems. While the advanced solutions weren’t applied by many of his engineering peers, they were instrumental to the rapid advancement of mechanics in the following centuries.
The enormous body of work produced by Coulomb over the next twenty years includes major advances in our understanding of electricity and magnetism. His work during this period that most impacts my job was the development of Coulomb’s law. To honor this great engineer and scientist, the SI unit for electric charge is named the coulomb.
Biographies:
Wikipedia
University of St Andrews
Paul Hutchinson's Blog 