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Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (;〔("Fourier" ). ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.〕 ; 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. ==Biography== 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 Supérieure'', and subsequently succeeded Joseph-Louis Lagrange at the ''École Polytechnique''. Fourier accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his Egyptian expedition in 1798, as scientific adviser, and was appointed secretary of the Institut d'Égypte. Cut off from France by the English fleet, he organized the workshops on which the French army had to rely for their munitions of war. He also contributed several mathematical papers to the Egyptian Institute (also called the Cairo Institute) which Napoleon founded at Cairo, with a view of weakening English influence in the East. After the British victories and the capitulation of the French under General Menou in 1801, Fourier returned to France. In 1801,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Fourier.html )〕 Napoleon appointed Fourier Prefect (Governor) of the Department of Isère in Grenoble, where he oversaw road construction and other projects. However, Fourier had previously returned home from the Napoleon expedition to Egypt to resume his academic post as professor at École Polytechnique when Napoleon decided otherwise in his remark ''... the Prefect of the Department of Isère having recently died, I would like to express my confidence in citizen Fourier by appointing him to this place.''〔 Hence being faithful to Napoleon, he took the office of Prefect.〔 It was while at Grenoble that he began to experiment on the propagation of heat. He presented his paper ''On the Propagation of Heat in Solid Bodies'' to the Paris Institute on December 21, 1807. He also contributed to the monumental ''Description de l'Égypte''. Fourier moved to England in 1816. Later, he returned to France, and in 1822 succeeded Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre as Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences. In 1830, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1830, his diminished health began to take its toll: Shortly after this event, he died in his bed on 16 May 1830. Fourier was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, a tomb decorated with an Egyptian motif to reflect his position as secretary of the Cairo Institute, and his collation of Description de l'Égypte. His name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. A bronze statue was erected in Auxerre in 1849, but it was melted down for armaments during World War II.〔A (subscription ) has been launched to erect a new one.〕 Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble is named after him. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Fourier」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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