Petru Bogdan (29 January 1873 – 28 March 1944) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

, educator, and politician. In 1926, he was elected a titular member of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

. He was born in Cozmești,

Iași County Iași County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Western Moldavia, with the administrative seat at Iași. It is the most populous county in Romania, after the Municipality of Bucharest (which has the same administrative level as that of a coun ...

, the son of Vasile Bogdan (the mayor of the village) and Ana, née Timuș; his father died four years laters, during the

Romanian War of Independence The Romanian War of Independence is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), following which Romania, fighting on the Russian side, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On , Romania and the R ...

of 1877. Bogdan was a professor at the

University of Iași The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (Romanian: ''Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza"''; acronym: UAIC) is a public university located in Iași, Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former Academia Mih ...

. He wrote the first treatise on physical chemistry in the

Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Moldova, Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communi ...

. In 1923, one of his students, Theodor V. Ionescu, who worked in

plasma physics Plasma ()πλάσμα
, Henry George Liddell, R ...

, was the first to defend a PhD thesis in physics at the University of Iași. Bogdan was a member of the

National Peasants' Party The National Peasants' Party (also known as the National Peasant Party or National Farmers' Party; ro, Partidul Național Țărănesc, or ''Partidul Național-Țărănist'', PNȚ) was an agrarian political party in the Kingdom of Romania. It w ...

. He served as Mayor of Iași from January 1930 to March 1934. He had 7 children, Margareta, Gheorghe, Maria, Elena, Ana, , and Ioan; one of his grandsons was

Ioan Petru Culianu Ioan Petru Culianu or Couliano (5 January 1950 – 21 May 1991) was a Romanian historian of religion, culture, and ideas, a philosopher and political essayist, and a short story writer. He served as professor of the history of religions at the ...

Publications

Studiul Chimiei Fisicale (4 volumes) * I''Teoria cinetică'', * II''Termodinamica'', * III''Electrochimia'', * IV''Structura atomului. Radioactivitatea''.

References

External links

University of Iași
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bogdan, Petru Romanian chemists Rectors of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Titular members of the Romanian Academy Mayors of Iași 1873 births 1944 deaths People from Iași County Alexandru Ioan Cuza University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni National Peasants' Party politicians