Maybe one of my favorite posts, so I am re-posting. Stay well.

It’s the birthday of Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Fourier (1768-1830), brilliant mathematician but also—because how else are you going to spend your time when you’re not developing an eponymous infinite mathematical series—a brilliant Egyptologist responsible for the publication of the 10-volume Description de l’Égypte, one of the most comprehensive works ever published on Egypt, and for which Fourier wrote a Big Fat Preface.

Also: something to do with polynomials.

Fourier was born in Auxerre, France, the son of a tailor, and first studied under Benedictine monks. He was actively pro-Revolution during the French Revolution, managed not to die, and in 1795 joined the faculties of the brand-new École Normal and the École Polytechnique, both highly prestigious institutions.

In 1798, Fourier joined Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt as scientific advisor—the same expedition that led to the discovery of the Rosetta stone—and stayed until the British kicked them out in 1801. Fourier researched antiquities, gave engineering advice, and contributed mathematical papers to the newly formed Egyptian (Cairo) Institute. He returned to France with big buttery handfuls of Egyptian materials for that Description de l’Égypte, an edition of which is now available on Amazon for the low low price of $11.39. While continuing this work and his work in mathematics, he also was appointed an administrator for the government and proved skillful at things like directing the drainage of swamps. He was the whole package.

(Yes, I know this is not the sort of author typically featured here. He didn’t write children’s books, he didn’t write mysteries or contribute to the 20th century literary canon. Tomorrow is the birthday of Louis L’Amour and a bunch of others so just calm down.)

Fourier began working on his Théorie analytique de la chaleur (The Analytical Theory of Heat) in 1807 and published it in 1822, thus expressing the conduction of heat in two-dimensional objects via a particular differential equation, and I think we’re all just glad someone said it because we were all thinking it. In fact a number of things in math, physics, and engineering have been named after Fourier, everything from the Fourier-Bessel series to a bunch of Fourier-related transforms to Fourier transform spectroscopy. Super fun fact: Fourier is also credited with discovering the greenhouse effect. Throughout his life, Fourier continued administrating things and in 1822 was named perpetual secretary to the Académie des Sciences, which—I’m just going to say this—sounds like an awful lot of work. (Never let them name you perpetual anything.)

Fourier had some heart issues, experienced a fall on May 4, 1830, and died on May 16 at the age of 62. He had never married but was notably close friends with the brilliant female applied mathematician Sophie Germain. So: never married, no kids, got a LOT done.

(Bonus fact: if you follow my husband’s academic family tree straight up from his grad school advisor, you get to Fourier in about 10 generations. Which means Fourier is practically my father-in-law. Or something. My husband will now email me and correct everything I said wrong in this post.)

Have a quiet Saturday chock full of polynomials or Egyptian artifacts or whatever floats your boat, rest in the assurance that those you can’t be with right now are thinking of you, and stay scrupulously honest to the data.