Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier was born on March 21, 1768, in the town of Auxerre, France.
He was born of Joseph Fourier and his second wife, Edmie Germaine LeBegue. Fourier was the
ninth of twelve children. However, his mother died in 1777, and his father a year later.
Therefore, he was an orphan at the age of 10. He continued with his education where he first
attended a preparatory school headed by a man named Joseph Pallais. From there he went on to
École Royale Militaire. At the age of 19 started training for the preisthood at the Benedictine abbey of St Benoit-sur-Loire. His interest in mathematics
persisted and he decided to leave the preisthood. He then atttended the College of Auxerre before proceeding
to the College Montaigu in Paris. He had an early love for mathematics, literature, and science. In college, however,
he becomes frustrated and in one letter is quoted as saying, "Yesterday was my 21st birthday, at that age
Newton and Pascal had acquired many claims to immortality." He clearly yearned to make his mark.
This is a picture from Fourier's hometown of Auxerre. This is the Cathedral St. Germain which is located on the banks of the river Yonne.
After school, he decided to becaome a teacher at the École Royale Militaire. He then got involved in politics, however, by joining the Revolutionary Committee in 1793. Once the revolution started he was horrified by the violence that erupted, and tried to resign but failed. In one incident in Orlèans, he defended Auxerre, and eventually was arrested. He was almost beheaded, but Robespierre went to the guillotine, and political changes allowed for him to be released. In 1794, he was trained in teaching at the École Normale in Paris where he learned from Lagrange, Laplace, and Monge. Fourier then began teaching at École Centrale des Travaux Publiques which was later renamed École Polytechnique. However, he was arrested again due to his previous arrest and the turbulent times of the Revolution. He was freed and went back to teaching. By 1797, he had succeeded Lagrange as the chair of analysis and mechanics.
In 1798, Fourier joined Napoleon on his invasion of Egypt as his scietific advisor. The attack went well initially, but the French navy was devasted in August, 1798. Fourier acted as an administrator in setting up an educational system and setting up archaeological digs. He then help setup up the Cairo Institue where he was elected secretary, and organized all scientific discoveries.
Fourier returned to Paris in 1799 with Napoleon, and resumed teaching at the École Polytechnique. Napoleon summoned him to be the Prefect of Isère. Fourier was very dissatisfied but could not refuse Bonaparte. As a prefect he took on various political responsibilities, such as construction of a highway in Grenoble. It was during this time that Fourier did his all important work with heat as a part-time physicist. He began in 1804 and by 1807 had completed On the Propogation of Heat in Solid Bodies. It was in this memoir, that Fourier had first revealed his famous Fourier series. There were some objections, and after some controversy, it was decided not to publish the work.
Napoleon was eventually defeated, and upon escaping, made his way toward Grenoble. Fourier was nervous, and fled when Napoleon came into Grenoble. Napoleon caught up with him, but Fourier talked his way back into Napoleon's favor. Napoleon then appointed Fourier to be Prefect of Rhône. He resigned shortly after, but was set to recieve a pension from Napoleon of 6000 francs in 1815. However, Napoleon was defeated again, and Fourier didn't recieve any money.
In 1817, Fourier was elected to the Acadèmie des Sciences. He was then elected as the secretary of the mathematical section, and soon after published his essay, Thèorie analytique de la chaleur. He then continued with his research for the last eight years of his life. His work was not without controversy, being disputed by Biot and Poisson. Biot stated that his theory on heat was superior to Fourier's, but that was easily shown false. Poisson had doubts about Fouriers mathematical process. Today, his work is highly regarded despite the controversy it caused at the time. Then, on May 16, 1830, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Fourier had a heart attack and died. The doctor's diagnosis showed that Fourier's heart attack was caused by nervous chronic angina complicated by a nervous disease of the pericord and the principal organs of the chest. [1]