Corneliu E. Giurgea (6 January 1923,

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

– 30 December 1995,

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

) was a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language *** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language ** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...

psychologist and

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 t ...

. In 1964 he synthesised Piracetam, which he has described as a

nootropic Nootropics ( , or ) (colloquial: smart drugs and cognitive enhancers, similar to adaptogens) are a wide range of natural or synthetic dietary supplement, supplements or drugs and other substances that are claimed to improve cognitive function ...

. Giurgea coined the term ''nootropic'' in 1972.

Nootropic characteristics

He stated that nootropic drugs should have the following characteristics: # They should enhance learning and

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...

. # They should enhance the resistance of learned behaviors/memories to conditions which tend to disrupt them (e.g.

electroconvulsive shock Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive th ...

, hypoxia). # They should protect the brain against various physical or chemical injuries (e.g. barbiturates,

scopalamine Scopolamine, also known as hyoscine, or Devil's Breath, is a natural or synthetically produced tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic drug that is formally used as a medication for treating motion sickness and postoperative nausea and vomitin ...

). # They should increase the efficacy of the tonic cortical/subcortical control mechanisms. # They should lack the usual pharmacology of other

psychotropic A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance, that changes functions of the nervous system, and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behavior. Th ...

drugs (e.g. sedation, motor stimulation) and possess very few

side effect In medicine, a side effect is an effect, whether therapeutic or adverse, that is secondary to the one intended; although the term is predominantly employed to describe adverse effects, it can also apply to beneficial, but unintended, consequence ...

s and extremely low

toxicity Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subs ...

Biography

He received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

from the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

, where he also taught for several years. He continued his research and specialisation in Psychology (doc) at the First Pavlov State Medical University of St. Peterburg, under some of

Ivan Pavlov Ivan Petrovich Pavlov ( rus, Ива́н Петро́вич Па́влов, , p=ɪˈvan pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ ˈpavləf, a=Ru-Ivan_Petrovich_Pavlov.ogg; 27 February 1936), was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist, psychologist and physio ...

's closest collaborators such as Pyotr Kupalov. He was then a

post-doc A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

and subsequently a professor at the Université catholique de Louvain and scientific counselor and researcher at the Belgian pharmaceutical company UCB.

Books and articles

*''Le Vieillissement Cerebral: Normal Et Reussi, Le Defi Du XXIe Siecle'' 1993 *''L'heritage De Pavlov: Un Demi-Siecle Apres Sa Mort'' 1986 *''Fundamentals to a pharmacology of the mind'' 1981 *Articles
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References

1923 births 1995 deaths Romanian psychologists Romanian chemists Jewish chemists Romanian pharmacologists University of Bucharest alumni Academic staff of the University of Bucharest Academic staff of the Université catholique de Louvain 20th-century psychologists Romanian expatriates in the Soviet Union Romanian expatriates in the United States Romanian expatriates in Belgium {{Psychologist-stub