JEAN DHOMBRES is mathematician and historian of science, emeritus CNRS research director, director of studies at the Alexandre Koyre Centre of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), specialist of the mathematics of functional equations and of their applications, of epistemology of mathematics, and of the history of scientific communities and of the spread of scholarly ideas. Born in Paris in 1942, he studied at the École polytechnique and chose to take a chance with mathematical research instead of graduating as an engineer. He worked in functional analysis and through a series of encounters, he joined a small international group of scientists focused on functional equations. In fact it was in Bangkok that his first book was published as a result of a talk he had given at Chulalongkorn University in 1971. Besides many articles, he is happy to have been able to work with Janos Aczael, the uncontested leader in this field, having published with him a book on the subject, which has now become a reference, in Encyclopaedia of mathematics (University of Cambridge Press, republished in 2008).
Probably as a reaction to his family background, as well as to a scientific training centered on France, he wished to see the world, by learning Chinese, by participating in the establishment of experimental classes in Wu Han in China, then by becoming scientific adviser in a French embassy for three years. He became professor at the University of Nantes as early as 1972. Since for a while he was head of its mathematics department, he was confronted with issues related to teaching and continuing education of high school teachers. Setting up a mathematics education research Institute in Nantes led him to think that getting involved in the history of mathematics would enable him to identify interesting pedagogical methods. This activity has become a major interest and led to the establishment of the Francois Vi`ete Centre in Nantes. He was elected as a director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in 1988 and to the Chair of History of Exact Sciences. That same year he accepted the position of CNRS research director to run a laboratory devoted to the history of science in Paris, which now falls within the framework of the Alexandre Koyre Centre, feeling somehow the successor of this philosopher, by line of descent from René Taton and Pierre Costabel. He thinks historians still need to better account for the representation of mathematics in human societies in order to grasp how these societies function, by learning how to properly benefit from the computer revolution which gives access to all the texts, from the past to the present-day. It is indeed true that current mathematics are often useful to comprehend past mathematics, and that a celebratory tone, or mere erudite accumulation concerning the latter is of no use for us. Emeritus since 2007, he is able to continue to lead a seminar at the EHESS, which in the academic year 2013 was on the question of authority in mathematics. Finally, the Liber amicorum which was dedicated to him and which included a list of publications (Reminisciences, Vol. 8, Brepols, 2008), and Une Histoire des savoirs mathématiques et de leurs pratiques culturelles. De l’émancipation à l’âge baroque à la moisson des lumières (Hermann, 2012).
