Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot

Sadi Carnot
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot in 1813 at age of 17 in the traditional uniform of a student of the École Polytechnique
Born	(1796-06-01)1 June 1796 Palais du Petit-Luxembourg, Paris, France
Died	24 August 1832 (age 36) Paris, France
Nationality	France
Fields	Physicist and engineer
Institutions	French army
Alma mater	École Polytechnique École Royale du Génie () University of Paris Collège de France
Academic advisors	Siméon Denis Poisson André-Marie Ampère François Arago
Known for	Carnot cycle Carnot efficiency Carnot theorem Carnot heat engine
Influenced	Émile Clapeyron Rudolf Clausius Lord Kelvin
Notes
He was the brother of Hippolyte Carnot, his father was the mathematician Lazare Carnot, and his nephews were Marie François Sadi Carnot and Marie Adolphe Carnot.

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (French: [kaʁno]; 1 June 1796 – 24 August 1832) was a French military engineer and physicist, often described as the "father of thermodynamics". In his only publication, the 1824 monograph Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire, Carnot gave the first successful theory of the maximum efficiency of heat engines. Carnot's work attracted little attention during his lifetime, but it was later used by Rudolf Clausius and Lord Kelvin to formalize the second law of thermodynamics and define the concept of entropy.

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot was born in Paris into a family that was distinguished in both science and politics. He was the first son of Lazare Carnot, an eminent mathematician, military engineer and leader of the French Revolutionary Army. Lazare chose his son's third given name (by which he would always be known) after the Persian poet Sadi of Shiraz. Sadi was the elder brother of statesman Hippolyte Carnot and the uncle of Marie François Sadi Carnot, who would serve as President of France from 1887 to 1894.

At the age of 16, Sadi Carnot became a cadet in the École Polytechnique in Paris, where his classmates included Michel Chasles and Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis. The École Polytechnique was intended to train engineers for military service, but its professors included such eminent scientists as André-Marie Ampère, François Arago, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, Louis Jacques Thénard and Siméon Denis Poisson, and the school had become renowned for its mathematical instruction. After graduating in 1814, Sadi became an officer in the French army's corps of engineers. His father Lazare had served as Napoleon's minister of the interior during the "Hundred Days", and after Napoleon's final defeat in 1815 Lazare was forced into exile. Sadi's position in the army, under the restored Bourbon monarchy of Louis XVIII, became increasingly difficult.