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Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier

Joseph Fourier
Fourier2.jpg
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier
Born (1768-03-21)21 March 1768
Auxerre, Burgundy, Kingdom of France (now in Yonne, France)
Died 16 May 1830(1830-05-16) (aged 62)
Paris, Kingdom of France
Residence France
Nationality French
Fields Mathematician, physicist, historian
Institutions École Normale
École Polytechnique
Alma mater École Normale
Academic advisors Joseph-Louis Lagrange
Notable students Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet
Claude-Louis Navier
Giovanni Plana
Known for Fourier series
Fourier transform
Fourier's law of conduction
Fourier–Motzkin elimination

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier - (/ˈfʊəriˌ, -iər/;French: [fuʁje]; 21 March 1768 – 16 May 1830) was a French mathematician and physicist born in Auxerre and best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series and their applications to problems of heat transfer and vibrations. The Fourier transform and Fourier's law are also named in his honour. Fourier is also generally credited with the discovery of the greenhouse effect.

Fourier was born at Auxerre (now in the Yonne département of France), the son of a tailor. He was orphaned at age nine. Fourier was recommended to the Bishop of Auxerre and, through this introduction, he was educated by the Benedictine Order of the Convent of St. Mark. The commissions in the scientific corps of the army were reserved for those of good birth, and being thus ineligible, he accepted a military lectureship on mathematics. He took a prominent part in his own district in promoting the French Revolution, serving on the local Revolutionary Committee. He was imprisoned briefly during the Terror but, in 1795, was appointed to the École Normale and subsequently succeeded Joseph-Louis Lagrange at the École Polytechnique.


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