Emilian Bratu (8 August 1904 – 31 March 1991) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n chemical engineer, founder of chemical engineering education in Romania. With the Austrian physical chemist Otto Redlich, he studied the dissociation constant of

heavy water Heavy water (deuterium oxide, , ) is a form of water (molecule), water in which hydrogen atoms are all deuterium ( or D, also known as ''heavy hydrogen'') rather than the common hydrogen-1 isotope (, also called ''protium'') that makes up most o ...

.Em. Bratu, E. Abel, O. Redlich, Die elektrolytische Dissoziation des schweren Wassers, Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie, 173, 353 (1935)

Life and work

Born in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, he studied at the

Saint Sava Saint Sava (, ; Old Church Slavonic: ; Glagolitic: ; ; 1169 or 1174 – 14 January 1235/6), known as the Enlightener or the Illuminator, was a Serbs, Serbian prince and Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox monk, abbot of Studenica Monastery, Studeni ...

Gheorghe Lazăr Gheorghe Lazăr (5 June 1779 – 17 September 1823), was a Transylvanian Romanian scholar and the founder of the first Romanian language school in Bucharest, in 1817. Biography Lazăr was born to a peasant family in Felek, Szeben County, Habsb ...

, and

Matei Basarab Matei Basarab (; 1588, Brâncoveni, Olt – 9 April 1654, Bucharest) was the voivode (prince) of Wallachia from 1632 to 1654. Reign Much of Matei's reign was spent fighting off incursions from Moldavia, which he successfully accomplished in 1 ...

high schools and the National School of Bridges and Roads, the future

Politehnica University of Bucharest Politehnica University of Bucharest () is a technical university in Bucharest, Romania founded in 1818.Technical University of Vienna, specializing in physical chemistry and

electrochemistry Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between Electric potential, electrical potential difference and identifiable chemical change. These reactions involve Electron, electrons moving via an electronic ...

. Here he met Redlich, with whom he studied the properties of heavy water between 1932 and 1935. Returning home he taught a course titled Processes and Devices in Chemical Industry, forerunner of chemical engineering courses in Romania.

Collaboration with Costin Nenițescu

Emilian Bratu and

Costin Nenițescu Costin D. Nenițescu (in some places ''Nenitzescu'' (; 15 July 1902 – 28 July 1970)) was a prominent Romanian chemist, and a professor at the Politehnica University of Bucharest. He was a titular list of members of the Romanian Academy, member ...

were two senior professors of the Faculty of Industrial Chemistry. The two scholars were good friends who have been deeply respected in the course of their life. Both of them, having German education, have early intuited the necessity of introducing in Romania the

Chemical Engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

discipline for higher polytechnic education, starting from the favorable external prospects related to the development of the chemical industry based on national raw material reserves. They fought together to assert chemistry in Polytechnics, and largely thanks to their effort, in 1938 the "Industrial Chemistry" name for Polytechnics faculty was introduced. Thus, in 1940–1950, Nenițescu supported Bratu's effort for establishing and consolidating of the Department of Processes and Apparatus in Bucharest, which later became the Department of Chemical Engineering, being the first such chair in the country and among the first in Europe. On the other hand, in the early 1950s, Bratu accepted the request of Nenițescu to give a lecture on the progress of chemical engineering, especially in the field of application of chemical similarity in the chemical reactions. The lecture was given to the teaching staff and research collaborators in the field of

Organic Chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

. On the whole, the lecture was a rousing interest.

Notes

External links

*
Chemical Engineering Department

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bratu, Emilian 1904 births 1991 deaths Engineers from Bucharest Politehnica University of Bucharest alumni Romanian chemical engineers Titular members of the Romanian Academy TU Wien alumni