HABICH, Edward Jan
* 3. 1. 1835, Warsaw, Poland
† 31. 10. 1909, Lima, Peru
engineer
Habich obtained the rank of an officer after graduating from the Artillery Academy in St. Petersburg. He left the army in 1858 and travelled to France. Between 1860 and 1863 he studied at École des Ponts et Chaussees in Paris. After he returned to his homeland, he participated in the January Rebellion. From 1864 onwards he taught at the Polish College Montparnasse in Paris; he was also its principal from 1865 to 1868.
Ernest →Malinowskij, who built the railway through the Andes, recommended Habich to the Peruvian government in Paris and later a contract was made which saw Habich employed as a government engineer; in 1869 he travelled to Peru. As a director of public works he was in charge of building the port in Arica, regulating cities and irrigating agricultural areas in the south. From 1872 onwards he organised engineering conventions, such as the ones in France. He hired Polish engineers to work in Peru: Aleksander Babínski, Władysław →Kluger and Ksawery Wakulski, among others. In 1875/76 Habich, with help from →Kluger and Wakulski, founded the first College in Latin America, entitled „Escuela de Construcciones Civiles y de Minas del Peru“. He was its principal until his death.
From 1878 to 1902 Habich worked in the Central Committee of Government Engineers; he presided the Committee until 1884. This institution was later renamed Council of Public Works. From 1880 to 1887 he published a scientific-technical newspaper Anales de Construcciones Civiles y de Minas del Peru, in which he wrote about bridge building, the metric system, telegraph communication, and astronomic observation. Habich, in connection with Peru’s economic independence, supported the exploitation of mineral riches and farming, especially the cultivation of cotton, sugar cane and wine. Habich is considered the founder of the modern mining law in Peru and the founder of the Geographical Association in Lima (1888).
