Mihai Horia Botez (18 November 194011 July 1995) 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 mathematician and dissident, nicknamed "Romania's Sakharov" by the international press. A leading statistician, he played a key role in founding the study of futurology in the Eastern European country, before becoming a critic of the communist regime's catastrophic economic policies. He survived four suspicious attacks, including a stabbing, a car ramming, and a beating that left him hospitalized and which human rights groups blamed on the country's secret police, the

Securitate The Department of State Security (), commonly known as the Securitate (, ), was the secret police agency of the Socialist Republic of Romania. It was founded on 30 August 1948 from the '' Siguranța'' with help and direction from the Soviet MG ...

. 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 graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics of the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

, where he was a student of

Octav Onicescu Octav Onicescu (; August 20, 1892 – August 19, 1983) was a Romanian mathematician and a member of the Romanian Academy. Together with his student, Gheorghe Mihoc, he is considered to be the founder of the Romanian school of probability theory ...

. Under the guidance of

Gheorghe Mihoc Gheorghe Mihoc (July 7, 1906 – December 25, 1981) was a Romanian mathematician and statistician. He was born in Brăila, the son of Ecaterina and Gheorghe Mihoc, both originally from the Banat. In 1908, his father moved the family to Bucharest. ...

, he studied an extension of the notion of

Markov chain In probability theory and statistics, a Markov chain or Markov process is a stochastic process describing a sequence of possible events in which the probability of each event depends only on the state attained in the previous event. Informally ...

, obtaining his PhD in 1967 from the Mathematical Statistics Institute of the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ) 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 bylaws, the academy's ma ...

. He taught at the

Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies The Bucharest University of Economic Studies (, abbreviated ASE) is a public university in Bucharest, Romania. Founded in 1913 as the ''Academy of Higher-level Commercial and Industrial Studies'' (''Academia de Înalte Studii Comerciale și Indu ...

, before moving to the University of Bucharest, where he became a professor in 1970. In 1974 he was appointed by the Education Minister, , inaugural director of the Center for the Study of Futures and Development. After visiting for several months in 1976 the

Woodrow Wilson Center The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS) or Wilson Center is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank dedicated to research and policy discussions on global issues. Established by an act of Congress in 1968, it serves as both ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, he was fired the next year from his academic positions for expressing his dissidence to the regime of

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

. Botez was granted asylum in the United States in 1987, before returning to Romania in 1989 after the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

. He died on 11 July 1995, at the age of 54 at in Bucharest. According to

Dorin Tudoran Dorin Tudoran (born June 30, 1945) is a Romanian poet, essayist, journalist, and dissident. A resident of the United States since 1985, he has authored more than fifteen books of poetry, essays, and interviews. Biography Early life Born in T ...

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

-affiliate Stefan Halper came to Romania with a proposal to bury Botez at the

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

, but his widow, Magda Botez, turned down the offer. A school in Sector 3 of Bucharest bears his name since 2003.

Works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botez, Mihai 1940 births 1995 deaths Scientists from Bucharest University of Bucharest alumni 20th-century Romanian mathematicians Academic staff of the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies Academic staff of the University of Bucharest Futurologists Romanian statisticians Romanian dissidents 20th-century diplomats Ambassadors of Romania to the United States Permanent representatives of Romania to the United Nations