1768-1830

French Mathematician, Egyptologist and Administrator

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier was a French mathematician, Egyptologist, and administrator with the French government. He is best remembered for his work on the analysis of functions in terms of a type of infinite mathematical series now known as Fourier series. This type of analysis has many important applications in the physical sciences.

Fourier was born on March 21, 1768, in Auxerre, France, the ninth child of a tailor and his second wife. Both his parents were dead by the time he was 10, and he was sent to a local military school run by Benedictine monks. He exhibited a great proficiency in mathematics, and eventually became a teacher there.

Fourier considered training for the priesthood, but became embroiled in politics in the wake of the French Revolution. He joined the local Revolutionary Committee, and became enamored of "the sublime hope of...