Hauman, Lucien Léon (1880-1965)

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Botanist, born in Elsene (Ixelles) on 6 july 1880 en died in Brussels on 16 September 1965.

Biography

On 6 July 1880 Lucien Hauman was born in Elsene (Ixelles), the son of an engineer and a lawyer. He studied Greek-Latin at the Athenaeum of Chimay. He then took classes at the Institut Agronomique de Gembloux. In 1901 he graduated from this institute as an agricultural engineer. After obtaining his engineering diploma, he started work as an assistant to Jules Bordet at the Institut Pasteur of Brabant.
In 1904, he was asked by the government of the republic of Argentina to hold a chair at the Higher Agranomic Institute in Buenos Aires. Here, Hauman taught botany, plant physiology and microbiology. From 1920, he also taught at the University of La Plata. He also carried out research in Argentina: he carried out botanical scoutwork in Argentina, collecting and observing plants. He was recruited as an attaché to the Museum of Natural History in Buenos Aires. In 1921, he became curator here. In 1926, upon the death of Jean Massart, he returned to Belgium and was appointed lecturer. At the ULB he had a botanical garden and several greenhouses at his disposal. He used these locations to teach and conducted research.. In 1928 he was promoted to ordinary professor at the ULB. He taught, among other things, general botany and plant physiology. He was given the title of honorary professor by the University of Buenos Aires.
As of 1930, he was secretary to the Faculty of Science at ULB. At the beginning of the Second World War, he was chairman of this faculty. He was also a member of the Administrative Committee of the university. He and the university's administrative committee were in conflict with the German occupiers. Hauman was imprisoned by the occupying forces in the citadel of Huy (Hoei). The university itself was closed down. After the liberation, he continued his scientific career.
In 1948, he made another expedition to Congo. In 1949, he was invited to lecture at several congresses in Argentina. He also received an honorary doctorate from the University of Buenos Aires in this year.
He was admitted to emeritus status in 1950.
He became a corresponding member of the The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium on 15 December 1927, an effective member on 15 December 1931 and the director of the Science Class in 1946.
In 1936 he became an associate member of the Class of Natural Sciences and Medicine at the Royal Academy of Colonial Sciences. In 1954 he became an effective member and in 1958 he became the President of the Class of Natural Sciences and Medicine. In 1906, he became a member of the Royal Botanical Society of Belgium, and in 1933 and 1934 its president. He was its secretary from 1947 and 1948.
He won the Decennial Prize of the Belgian Government for Botanical Sciences. In 1920, he won the Croicy Prize of the Parisian Academy. The same year, he also won the François Crépin prize and in 1935 the Léo Errera prize.
He died in Brussels on 16 September 1965.

Work

In Argentina, he conducted research on plant diseases in cultivated plants. He also described a series of such parasites, including the Mucor stolonifer on the Ipomea batatas.
He wrote the first volumes of the Catalogue des Phanérogames de l'Argentine.
Upon his return to Belgium, he initially continued his research on the Argentinian flora. However, his attentian soon shifted to the flora of Congo, the Belgian colony.
He participated in the editing of Flore du Congo, a project supervised by the National Institute for Agronomic Study of the Belgian Congo (NILCO/INEAC).
In 1932, there was the Belgian science mission to the Ruwenzori, organised on the initiative of the Belgian Alpine Club with Hauman describing its elevational zonation of plant growth.
1934 saw the publication of the Catalogue des Ptéridophytes et Phanérogames de la flore belge.
Between 1942 and 1964, he studied and described 22 plant families and 125 species.

History of science
He wrote 27 biographies of Belgian botanists and other scientists of the 19th century.

Publication of courses
In 1910, he published Botanica, a groundwork for his teaching.

Publications

• A list with publication can be found in: Homès, Marcel, "Hauman Lucien", In: Annuaire ARB, jaargang 1986, p. 30-58.
  

Bibliography

• Homès, Marcel, "Hauman Lucien", In: Annuaire ARB, jaargang 1986, p. 3-30.
• Balle, Simonne, "Hauman Lucien", In: Biographie Nationale, vol. 44, kol. 605-615.