Three candidates for president of Romanian Academy job
Three members of the Romanian Academy have submitted their bids for the job of president of the institution, considered the country’s highest culture and sciences body.
The election of a new president comes after Ionel-Valentin Vlad, the previous holder of the post, passed away at the end of last year. The elections take place on April 5.
The three candidates are Bogdan Simionescu, one of the four current vice-presidents of the Academy, Ioan Aurel Pop, the rector of the Babeş Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, and Victor Voicu, the current secretary general of the Academy, News.ro reported. Cristian Hera, the institution’s interim president, decided not to enter the race.
Bogdan Simionescu is a chemical engineer and a professor at the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University in Iași. He has been a full member of the Academy since 2009. He is also a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. His CV is available, in Romanian, here.
Ioan Aurel Pop is a historian. He has been a full member of the Romanian Academy since 2010. He is also a correspondent member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts and a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. This January, his name appeared among the rectors who signed a letter expressing their support for the appointment of Valentin Popa as education minister. However, he denied signing such a document. His CV is here.
Victor Voicu is a pharmacology doctor and the president of the Medical Sciences Department of the Romanian Academy. He has been a full member of the Academy since 2001, and is also a correspondent member of the French National Academy of Medicine. Between 1990 and 1995 he was the head of the Medical Section of the National Defense Ministry, and from 1987 to 2002 a commander at the Bucharest Center of Medical Military Research. He ran for the Academy’s president job in 2006, 2010 and 2014. His CV is here.
The president of the Academy is elected following the secret vote of the institution’s general assembly, made up of 200 people. These are full, correspondent and honorary members of the Academy. Before the elections, each candidate defends a managerial plan in front of the assembly. The president has a four-year mandate and can be re-elected only once.
The history of the Romanian Academy dates back to the 19th century. Its predecessor was the Romanian Academic Society, which emerged from the Romanian Literary Society, established in 1866. It received the name of Romanian Academy in 1879.
The institution promotes science and culture across all fields, coordinates several research institutes and can also draft studies, recommendations and strategies for the presidential administration, the government and other national institutions, among others. Through its Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti Linguistics Institute, it publishes the Dictionary of the Romanian Language (DEX).
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