Lagrange, Laplace and Monge all taught him, and may have helped his release from imprisonment on political charges. He submitted a paper on algebra to Montucla while still undecided on his career. Berthollet, Monge and Malus were fellow members of the Institut d’Egypte, with Fourier elected secretary. He taught Malus at the Ecole Polytechnique, then run by Carnot and Monge, and stimulated his protégé Champollion’s determination to decode Egyptian hieroglyphs. Delambre arranged for publication of his work on heat-conduction, and Cuvier was his fellow ‘Perpetual Secretary’ of the Académie des Sciences.