Toussaint Loua

Toussaint Loua (1824 – 1907) was a French statistician and was credited for inventing the heat map in information visualization.

Career
Loua was born in Saarn in modern day Germany.

He began his career as a clerk at the Ministry of Commerce in 1850 at the age of 26. From 1875 to 1887, Loua directed the General Directorate of Statistics of France (French: Statistique générale de la France). Under his direction, the SGF published in 1878 the first Statistical Yearbook of France (French: Annuaire statistique de la France) and it was also under its mandate that in 1885 the High Council of Statistics was created.