Lucien Hibbert: Mathematician and Statesman

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s00283-023-10283-5 ⚫ The Mathematical Intelligencer
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Lucien Hibbert:
Mathematician
andStatesman
LouisBeaugris In his native land of Haiti, some recognize the name
Lucien Hibbert in that of Collège Lucien Hibbert,
a high school in Port-au-Prince, the capital city.
Although Lucien Hibbert lived an extraordinary life
as an academic, a mathematician, and a political gure,
his story is not well known. Hibbert is one of the rst
mathematicians of the African diaspora, having earned
his doctorate in France twelve years after Elbert Frank
Cox, the rst African-American [15] and “the rst Black in
the world to earn a PhD in mathematics” [59, p.588]. His
achievements in mathematics, econometrics, and govern-
ment are not generally known.
There are a few, scattered, published sources on Hib-
bert’s political and academic life. His accomplishments
were briey summarized in his obituaries as well as in later
reports on political mathematicians [25] and education in
Haiti [14]. A search on zbmath.org yields a list of his pub-
lications in the late 1930s and early 1940s. This includes
his dissertation, published in the Bulletin de la Société
Mathématique de France. Juliette Leloup [30] gives a review
of his thesis, while Guido Erreygers and Albert Jolink [17]
describe Hibbert’s article on econometrics.
This article aims to provide a more complete biography
detailing Hibbert’s academic career and his mathematical
and political achievements. The following section recounts
his family roots, his early education, and the beginning of
his political career. The subsequent sections report on his
life in Paris during the time of his dissertation and his schol-
arship shortly thereafter; his thesis, his article on econo-
metrics, and his publications while in France; and nally,
Hibbert’s work in government and in higher education
administration following his return to Haiti in the 1940s.
Lineage andBeginnings
Fernand Hibbert and his wife, Marie Hibbert (née Pescaye),
welcomed their newborn son Lucien into the world in Port-
au-Prince, Haiti, on August 18, 1899. Born in Miragoâne,
Haiti, Fernand Hibbert was of the multiethnic segment of
the Haitian population comprising mostly people of mixed
European and African ancestry. Fernand was a prolic nov-
elist, often cited as one of the creators and “one of the mas-
ters of the Haitian novel.” Lucien Hibbert’s grandfather,
Cadieu Hibbert, was a senator of the Republic of Haiti.
Haiti, then called Saint-Domingue, was colonized by the
French in the mid-seventeenth century and “at its height
in the 1780s had become the single richest and most pro-
ductive colony in the world” [39, p.63]. Haiti proclaimed
its independence in 1804 and became the rst independent
l’un des maîtres du “roman national” [6, p.109].
Years Ago Edited by Jemma Lorenat
Years Ago features essays by historians and mathematicians
that take us back in time. Whether addressing special topics
or general trends, individual mathematicians or “schools,”
the idea is always the same: to shed new light on the
mathematics of the past. Submissions should be uploaded
to submission.springernature.com/new-submission/283/3.
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