Jean Paul Marat was a famous French doctor, a physicist, and a political outcast during the French Revolution. Born on May 24, 1743, he was born second of seven to well bred yet not very rich parents. Marat had created a parabola with his life, starting at the successes of being able to cure every disease(whether or not this claim is actually valid, it's what the French thought of him), rising to debunk Issac Newton's theory of heat and fire, to his political downfall, almost every publication he released squelched by the French Government.
After receiving his Doctor of Medicine degree at St. Andrews University on June 30th 1775, he began his work on healing the eye, and his discovery of the irregular shape of the cornea had been accepted as fact until the end of the 19th century. Marat was also believed to be the first to apply electro-therapy to the eye as a way of curing certain eye related diseases. He held his practice in Soho for a time, then was hired by the Comte d'Artois. Apparently he was very good at his work; he earned himself the slogan/title Medicin des incurables. Early 1784 he lost his position as d'Artois' doctor, for reasons unknown.
At the same time, Marat took up electrophysics. He created an electrometer and determined the conductance of various materials. He administered private lectures on physics, and won recognition and fame worldwide.
However, losing his job as a doctor caught up with him, and he had to sell his equipment and books little by little just to fill his stomach. He wrote "Offrand a la Partie" in Febuary 1789. Two months passed and the suppliment to "Offrand a la Partie" was published. Both of these works were confiscated by the French Government, and this was the beginning of a long war between him and the authorities, for they tried to silence every publication he released. However, one publication was very successful, and after a name change, "L'ami du Peuple" had hit the newspapers.
Marat had then narrowly escaped the wrath of the leaders of the French Revolution. At some point, there were 6,000 soldiers trying to seize him. In January 1790 Marat quickly left for
London. During his time there, he was shunned though not as bad. A prompt return to
Paris in 1792 showed to Marat that the people of France had upped the stakes of the Revolution, far beyond the former "moderate" Revolution.
He then proceeded to actively participate in the Revolution. In a public speech he threatened to kill himself if the people watching didn't think he was worthy enough to be a deputy. Of course, they didn't deny it. Once he attained the job of deputy, he then performed rather subtle manipulations which ultimately resulted in the trial of King Louis XVI, sentenced to death. He then resigned his position.
Eventually, he became very ill with tuberculosis and had lost contact with his people; he was stabbed in the bath by Charlotte Corday on July 13, 1793.
Sources:
http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a9200097/history/jpm1.html