Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier was a French mathematician and physicist. When he was eight years old, his father died, and less than a year after this tragedy, his mother passed away, leaving him an orphan. A charitable lady helped him attend a local military school. He wanted to become an officer but was not allowed to because he was the son of a tailor. In 1795, he became a teacher at the École Normale in Paris. During the post-Revolution frenzy, he spoke out against the use of the guillotine, for which he almost lost his life. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, Fourier and other scholars accompanied the expedition. Having returned to France, Fourier began his research on heat conduction. His mathematical theory of heat conduction earned him lasting fame. During his stay in Egypt he contracted a strange illness that confined him to well-heated rooms for the rest of his life. On May 16, 1830, Fourier died in Paris.

* guillotine: 단두대