Academician Marius Andruh elected as Romanian Academy new president

Academician Marius Andruh was elected on Tuesday as the new president of the Romanian Academy.He garnered, in the second round of voting, 84 votes in favour out of the 157 votes cast.    The vice-presidents of the Romanian Academy, Marius Andruh and Mircea Dumitru, ran on Tuesday for the position of president of the institution.The current president of the institution, Ioan-Aurel Pop, did not run for any position within its leadership.The elections took place during the General Assembly, in accordance with the Academy's Statute, which provides for the organisation of the vote once every four years, in the first week of April.According to the statute, the president of the Academy is elected either with a two-thirds majority in the first round or by simple majority in the second round.The elected president will take office 15 days after the date of the voting.***Marius Andruh was born on 15 July 1954 in the commune of Smeeni, Buzau County, into a family of teachers.He attended primary school in his native village, and in 1973 graduated from 'B. P. Hasdeu' High School in Buzau as head of his class. During his secondary school studies, he participated in chemistry Olympiads, winning first prize at national level in the 11th and 12th grades and third prize at the 5th International Chemistry Olympiad.Andruh graduated in 1979, as head of his class, from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Bucharest, specialising in inorganic chemistry.In 1988, he obtained a PhD in chemistry with a thesis supervised by academician Maria Brezeanu. He later undertook postdoctoral specialisations in Paris (1991) and in Gottingen, as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (1992-1993).After a three-year period at IPRS Baneasa (1979-1982), he moved to the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Bucharest.Since 1984, he has been a member of the teaching staff in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, becoming a full professor in 1996 and emeritus professor in 2019.Between 2003 and 2019, he served as head of department.Since 2021, he has also been director of the 'C. D. Nenitescu' Institute of Organic and Supramolecular Chemistry of the Romanian Academy.Between 1994 and 1996, he was an associate professor at Universite du Quebec a Montreal. He has collaborated with universities in Europe and South America as a visiting professor, including the University of Bordeaux and the Institut Universitaire de France (1998), the University of Gottingen (2001), the University of Brno (2001), the University of Angers (2003, 2004, 2009), 'Pierre et Marie Curie' University in Paris (2005), the University of Jena (2006), the University of Manchester (2006), 'Paul Sabatier' University in Toulouse (2007), 'Louis Pasteur' University in Strasbourg (2007, 2009), the University of Valencia (2010), the Federal Fluminense University in Niteroi/Rio de Janeiro (2012, 2013, 2014) and the University of Bordeaux (Paul Pascal Research Centre, 2014).He is currently president of the Central Commission of the National Chemistry Olympiad and coordinator of the national team.He was elected vice-president of the Romanian Academy in 2022.His research areas include metallo-supramolecular chemistry, crystal engineering, molecular magnetism, complex compounds, heteropolynuclear complexes, molecular and supramolecular systems with three different spin carriers and luminescent molecular materials. (Photo:https://acad.ro/academia_romana/)