PETRU PONI

Petru Poni (b. 4 January 1841 , the village Săcăreşti , Iasi , d. 2 April 1925 , Science ) was a chemist, physicist, educator, mineralogist and Romanian politician, a pioneer of chemical education in Romania. He was professor at the University of Science and member of the Romanian Academy.

He graduated from primary school to Tg Nice and then came to Central Middle School in Iasi (1852-1859). As a scholar in Paris specializing in chemistry, physics and mineralogy at the College de France and the Sorbonne . Returning to the country in 1865 acting as a teacher at the National, and since 1866 and teaches at the School of Military Science. In 1878 is appointed Head of the Department of Chemistry, University of Science where he taught for 33 years. Here he set up:

• First Laboratory of Chemistry, University of Iasi (1882)
• Department of Organic Chemistry (1891)
• In 1897, Petru Poni and Anastasius Obregia inaugurated the new building of the University of Iasi, a chemistry lab, after the German model. In 1903 Prof. Petru Poni has introduced a new course:
• The study of chemical oil.

30 June 1879 was elected a member of the Romanian Academy and in 1889 he was appointed Commissioner of the Romanian Government at the Universal Exhibition in Paris.

He was one of the pioneers of Romanian chemistry is considered the founder of this school. Currently, the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry Petru Poni named Romanian Academy.

He searched over 80 minerals collected from various parts of the country and even found two new minerals, called him Broşteni and Baden. A study prepared in connection with the action of nitric acid of various concentrations of paraffinic hydrocarbons isolated from indigenous oil. He searched the country's mineral waters and meteorological observations in Moldova . He published the first textbooks of physics and chemistry in Romanian. The organizer of the first labs to new scientific research and personnel training for chemists. He worked for the establishment of scientific societies in Romania: Romanian Society of Sciences (1890) and the Society of Sciences (1900), and was a member of the Society of Natural Sciences in Moscow (1910). Among the papers published by Professor Petru Poni include:

"Research on the crystalline massif minerals Broşteni" (1882)

"Minerals of Bădenii-Ungureni (1885)

"Facts to serve the mineralogical description of Romania" (1900), the first monograph on the minerals of our country

"Research on the chemical composition of the Romanian Petroleum" (1903).