Petru Bogdan (29 January 1873 – 28 March 1944) 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 ...

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

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

, 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 phase of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), in which Romania, fighting on the Russian side of the war, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On ...

of 1877. Bogdan was a professor at the

University of Iași The Alexandru Ioan Cuza University (; acronym: UAIC) is a public university located in , Romania. Founded by an 1860 decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, under whom the former was converted to a university, the University of , as it was named ...

. He wrote the first treatise on physical chemistry in the

Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spelling: Roumanian; , or , ) is the official and main language of Romania and Moldova. Romanian is part of the Eastern Romance languages, Eastern Romance sub-branch of Romance languages, a linguistic group that evolved fr ...

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

plasma physics Plasma () is a state of matter characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars (including th ...

, 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; , or ''Partidul Național-Țărănist'', PNȚ) was an Agrarianism, agrarian political party in the Kingdom of Romania. It was formed in 1926 throu ...

. 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 t ...

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