On November 15, 1868, biologist Emil Racoviţă was born, member and president of the Romanian Academy, the first Romanian explorer in Antarctica. In 1899, he participated in the expedition undertaken by the ship “Belgica” in Antarctica. In 1920, at the University of Cluj, he organizes the first Institute of Speleology in the world (d. November 19, 1947)
Emil Racoviţă (November 15, 1868, Iasi – November 17, 1947, Cluj-Napoca) is the founder of biospeology, biologist and speleologist, explorer and academician, according to the website of the Romanian Cultural Institute.
Emil Racoviţă was a full member of the Romanian Academy from 1920, president of the Academy between 1926 and 1929 and professor at the University of Cluj (1920-1947).
At only 25 years old, in 1893, he was elected a member of the Zoological Society of France. He was deputy director of the marine zoological station at Banyuls-sur-Mer (France), deputy director of the comparative anatomy laboratory at the Sorbonne and co-director of the international journal Archives de zoologie expérimentale et générale. In the work “Essai sur les problèmes biospéologiques” from 1907, Emil Racoviţă laid the foundations of a new science – biospeology.
He participated as a naturalist, together with Roald Amundsen, Frederick Cook, Antoine Dobrowolski and Henryk Arctowski in the Antarctic expedition with the ship “Belgica” (1897-1899), under the leadership of Adrien de Gerlache. During this expedition, Emil Racoviţă, together with the other scientists, gathered a rich botanical and zoological scientific material, which was later the subject of a number of 60 published volumes, representing a greater scientific contribution than all previous Antarctic expeditions taken at one place. Following this expedition, the Romanian scientist undertook an in-depth study of the life of whales, penguins and other Antarctic birds.
He founded in 1920, at the University of Cluj, the first speleology institute in the world, the creation of this institute being confirmed by a special law promulgated on April 26, 1920. Within this new institute, Emil Racoviţă taught the first general biology course in Romania . To begin with, the speleology institute from Cluj functioned as a component part of the Faculty of Sciences from Cluj, representing the official framework in which its founder also moved the headquarters of the “Biospeologica” Scientific Society, which he had founded in 1907, as an international coordination tool of the activity of all zoologists interested in the study of underground fauna.
Racoviţă is the founder of biospeology, a synthetic science par excellence, originally conceived with the aim of achieving the most faithful reconstruction of the natural history of the underground domain. Emil Racoviţă defined biospeology as the science of life forms in the underground environment (caves and water tables). His research on the systematics, ecology and evolution of subterranean animals contributed to the development of a phylogenetic perspective in systematics. A great lover of nature, Emil Racoviţă is one of the initiators of the protection of natural monuments in Romania.
He published, in addition to specialized materials, other works on the organization of higher education and scientific research. The main scientific works signed by Emil Racoviţă – “Essai sur les problèmes biospéologiques” (1907), “Speleology” (1927) and “Evolution and its problems” (1929) – contributed essentially to the development of biological and speleological research, at the international level.
The speleology institute from Cluj was reorganized in 1960, passing under the auspices of the Romanian Academy and receiving the name “Emil Racoviţă” Speleology Institute.
Find out presents the main historical meanings of November 15:
1845 – The philosopher and writer Vasile Conta was born (d. April 21, 1882)
1876 – Anna de Noailles (née Brâncoveanu), French writer of Romanian origin, was born. She was the first female member of the Royal Academy of Belgium and was elected an honorary member of the Romanian Academy, together with the opera singer Elena Macărescu, being the first women admitted to this institution (d. 1933)
1898 – Benjamin Fundoianu, Romanian poet and essayist, was born (d. October 1944)
1911 – Alexandru Ciorănescu, linguist, etymologist, historian, poet, prose writer, was born (d. November 25, 1999)
1916 – The writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, laureate of the Nobel Prize in 1905 (“The Flood”, “Quo vadis?”, “The Teutonic Knights”) passed away (b. May 5, 1846)
1917 – Emile Durkheim, the founder of the French school of sociology, passed away; established the object and study methods of sociology: “Rules of the sociological method” (b. 1858)
1955 – The UN Security Council approved the admission of 16 new states to the ranks of the organization, including the Romanian Republic.
1976 – Jean Gabin, theater and film actor, passed away; played the role of Commissioner Maigret in several screen adaptations of Georges Simenon’s novels (born May 17, 1904)
1987 – The anti-communist revolt of the workers from Braşov took place
1997 – The Romanian Minister of Finance and his Vietnamese counterpart signed an agreement regarding the payment, within five years, of Vietnam’s debts to Romania, amounting to 12 million dollars
2002 – Hu Jintao is elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of China
2008 – Twelve miners died and 13 others were admitted to the Petroşani Emergency Hospital, following two explosions that took place at the Petrila mine
2009 – The Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Pavle, has passed away.
Source: www.descopera.ro
