Background material

Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768–1830)

Joseph Fouriers was the twelfth of a total of fifteen siblings. He showed considerable ability at an early age, in both literature and mathematics, but nevertheless chose to educate himself to become a priest. He was not at all certain that this was the right choice; he may well have felt that mathematics was dearest to his heart. Gradually he also began to develop an interest in politics, and he joined the local revolutionary committee. This was in the years after the French Revolution in 1789, and as is often the case in history, “the Revolution eats its children”. Fourier was arrested and feared for a while that he would end up on the guillotine, but fortunately he was released after a while. In 1795, he was accepted in the first class of students at the École Normale in Paris and was instructed in mathematics by Lagrange, Laplace and Monge, three of the greatest mathematicians in Europe at that time. At the same time, he began to teach at the École Polytechnique without initially doing any particular research of his own.

In 1798, Fourier joined Napoleon's campaign to Egypt as a scientific advisor. The campaign was very successful at first, but in the Battle for the Nile Napoleon’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. Lord Nelson was too strong, and after the defeat Napoleon and his men were nearly held prisoner in Egypt. Fourier made good use of the time and was intensely involved in the work of developing educational and research institutions in Cairo, based on the French model. His main contribution was to organise the work on a description of Egypt's geography and history, and he himself wrote an introduction, which is still regarded to this day as a breakthrough in Egyptology.

Back in Paris, Fourier was nearly forced into politics after a while by Napoleon, who had ascended the throne by then. Fourier would have preferred to practice mathematics, but you did not refuse the Emperor. As Prefect of the Isère-region, however, he had time to do research, and it was in this period (1807) that he published his work on heat conduction in solid materials, where harmonic functions make their appearance. This work was not well received by his contemporaries, but posterity has learned to greatly appreciate Fourier's ideas. In fact, his dissertation from 1807 is the origin of the concept of Fourier analysis, a field that has proven to have enormous significance and that is currently a key component of every engineering student's everyday life. Also found in this dissertation is the problem that Lennart Carleson solved in 1966 and for which he has won the Abel Prize for 2006.

Fourier's life after this dissertation was affected by his somewhat ambivalent relationship to Napoleon and the fact that his 1807 dissertation was in many ways highly controversial. He was given positions of power and influence, but lived in constant danger of falling into disfavour. He was famous, but at the same time controversial among the mathematicians of his day.

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