Ohm's law is a basic law of electricity. Although Ohm was disregarded by his contemporaries, nowadays even ordinary secondary science students have heard about this scientist. Despite his significant contribution towards the development of electricity, his life was spent in poverty and solitude.

Born in 1789, Ohm came from a workers' family in Bavaria. Although his father was a locksmith who received no formal education, he loved mathematics and philosophy very much and his proficiency was attained by self-learning. When Ohm was small, his father taught him mathematics, physics, chemistry and philosophy, establishing a foundation in science and mathematics for him.

Ohm entered University of Erlangen in 1805. However, he had not been very attentive and he spent a great deal of time in pastimes such as dancing, skiing and snooker. His father was furious about it and thought Ohm had squandered the precious opportunity of learning, hence he ordered Ohm to quit school after three weeks. Since then, Ohm started a drifting teaching career: he has been a mathematics teacher in a secondary school, and he has also been a family teacher. He was still very interested in mathematics and physics, thus he kept on self-studying after work and his ambition was to become a university professor. In 1811, he returned to University of Erlangen and gained a doctorate degree based on his self-studies. It followed immediately that he started teaching mathematics at the university. After three semesters, Ohm felt that he had no room for development at University of Erlangen. Adding the factor that life has been really difficult, he accepted an offer from the Bavaria government and became a mathematics teacher in a secondary school in Bamberg which was in a very poor condition. To manifest his ability, he wrote a textbook in geometry. However, his career has not yet been illuminated.

Ohm eventually went teaching at Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne. This school has a well-equipped physics laboratory which allowed Ohm to carry out experiments. In 1820, after Ohm learnt that Oested discovered the magnetic effect of current, he started experimenting in electricity. At first he only experimented for the purpose of teaching aid, later he began a more organized study because he had to publish an academic essay. He passed electric current in all kinds of metal threads, investigating the relationship between current and voltage. Ohm had already mentioned about some supportive evidence for Ohm's law in his essays published in 1825 and 1826, but he did not formally propose this important law in electricity until his book Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically was published in 1827.

Ohm thought he would receive responses from physics scholars and job offers from universities. However, his book made no sound at all, not even an opposing voice. Ohm's theory would deeply influence the development of electricity, but he used a huge amount of mathematics in the book - this was totally against the contemporary mode of German physics, and thus the authorities did not really pay attention to his work. Ohm was disheartened. He resigned from his position at Jesuit Gymnasium of Cologne, and started to take up some short-term mathematics teaching jobs in some Berlin schools. In 1833, he was employed by Polytechnics of Nuemberg, but it was still not his ideal tertiary teaching position.

In 1841, Royal Society of London awarded Ohm a Copley Medal in recognition of his achievement. Later his mother country also gave him various prizes and honours. Ohm was finally recognized by other physicists. In 1952, Ohm became a physics professor at University of Munich, fulfilling his lifelong wish, but he passed away two years later.