Chairman of the Scientific Council
Emil Constantinescu
Emeritus Professor, Honorary President of the Senate of the University of Bucharest
Member of the Board of Trustees of the World Academy of Art and Science, and of the Board of Directors of the World University Consortium
President of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, 2011 – 2017
Founder and President of the Romanian Academic Forum, 2008 - present
Rector of the University of Bucharest, President the National Council of Rectors, 1992-1996
Member and honorary member of several international academic fora: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Permanent Council of the International Organisation of La Francophonie, "National Geographic" Society , geological and mineralogical societies in US, UK, Japan, France, Greece and Germany. He has delivered conferences of natural sciences and humanities at Oxford, Cambridge, Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Georgetown, Bloomington and New York (SUA), Tübingen, Augsburg, Munich and Karlsruhe (Germany), Sorbonne (France), Turku (Finland), Carolina University (Czech Republic), Patras (Greece), Beijing (China), Rio de Janeiro (Brasilia), Catholic (Argentina), Sydney and Monash (Australia), Cairo and Alexandria (Egypt), Zagreb and Maribor (Croatia), Warsaw and Krakow (Poland), Amsterdam and Maastricht (Netherlands), Nobel Institute (Norway) He has promoted the Initiative “Levant for Global Peace”, launched in May 2013 at Bucharest, in many valued international conferences and reunions: UN: “Global Summit” (New York, March 2014) UNESCO: „Global Summit (Paris, July 2014), „The World Alliance of Religions for Peace”, (Seul, September 2014), „ The Role of Inter-religious and Inter-cultural Dialogue in Today’s World” (Iran, May 2016), „International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy in Arab World - Political, Economic and Cultural Dimension” (Berlin, iulie 2016), UN: „International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy in the UN: Utilising Cultural Diplomacy to unite the World’s Cultures before Hard Power takes the Lead” (New York, Septembrie 2017).
Rightful members of the Scientific Council in accordance with Law no. 117/2017 governing the establishment of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Levant Culture and Civilization
Romanian members of the World Academy of Art and Science
Remus Pricopie
Rector of the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration
Minister of Education, 2012 – 2014
Member of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS)
President of The World University Consortium (WUC)
Professor Remus Pricopieis a graduate of Advanced Studies in International Educational Politics at the “George Washington” University in Washington, D.C. Five years after his graduation, in 2009, he was awarded the Fulbright Alumni Prize for the month of March from the US State Department, a recognition of notable recipients of Fulbright scholarships that went on to achieve exceptional results. He was also awarded a Certificate of Management and Leadership in Education from Harvard University.
Professor Pricopie is the President of the Fulbright Commission Board in Romania, and of the Task Force on Fostering and Building Human Capital (FBHC) of the Regional Cooperation Council in Vienna; a member of the International Advisory Council of the South-Eastern European Research Centre; of the Administrative Council of Sheffield University, UK; of the Futures Commission of the Romanian Academy; of the Leadership Council of the Initiative for Educational Reform in South-Eastern Europe (Belgrade, Serbia);of the Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for Communications Development (UNESCO, Paris); the Cooperation Council (Vienna); and is the Romanian representative to the European Quality Assurance Registrar – EQAR (Brussels, Belgium).
With a rich experience in the educational sector, prior to being appointed National Minister for Education professor Pricopie was a Senior Advisor to the Minister for Education (January-October 2009; December 2001 – June 2003); Minister-Adjunct for Education (Secretary of State for Higher Education, International Relations and the Formation of Teaching Staff, November 2007 – December 2008); Interim Minister for Education (May 2008); Secretary General (May– September 2001); Press Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Director of Public Communications (January – May 2001; July – October 1997); Head Expert, Department of Communications (October 1998 – January 2001); Expert at the Department for Higher Education and Research (February 1996 – July 1996).
Mircea Maliţa
Member of the Romanian Academy
Minister of Education 1970 – 1972
Founding President of the Black Sea University Foundation
A mathematician and philosopher, an essayist, a specialist in art history, political scientist and diplomat, Mircea Malița can be regarded as a noteworthy proponent of interdisciplinary research. He was the first Romanian member of the Club of Madrid, and the co-founder of the European Cultural Centre. The Black Sea University Foundation he founded in 1992 falls under the aegis of the Romanian Academy and has set itself ambitious projects, with the primary goal of promoting, clarifying and studying the economies, societies, educational and governance systems within the Black Sea region. For Romania, the Black Sea is of multifaceted geostrategic, political and economic importance.
Ionel Haiduc
President of the Romanian Academy 2006 - 2014
Rector of the Babes- Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, 1990 – 1993
Acad. Ionel Haiduc is a pioneer in the field of organometallic chemistry, but his scientific activity is much larger and is best described as an interface between chemistry, biology and physics. His contributions in the fields of supra-molecular chemistry, the chemistry of inorganic cycles, biological activity of metal compounds (including anti-tumour activity), in the denomination and systematization of terms in inorganic chemistry are of paramount importance and can be found in the tens of books and hundreds of articles published in Romania and abroad. He is a honorary member of The Moldavian and Hungarian Academies of Sciences, of the Academia Europaea, of the International Council of Main Group Chemists and Alliance of the Universities for Democracy and was visiting professor in USA, Brasil, Spain, Germany Mexico and Singapore.
Mugur Isărescu
Governor of the National Back of Romania
President of the Department of Economics, Sociology and Legal Sciences at the Romanian Academy
Prior to becoming the Governor of the National Bank of Romania in September 1990, Mugur Isărescu had been a scientific researcher at the Institute of International Economics for 19 years. He is a member of the Club of Rome, an international organization comprised of scientists, economists, businesspeople, current and former heads of state. He is the President of the Romanian Association of the Club of Rome, as well as an associate member of the Royal Academy of Economics and Financial Sciences in Spain.
Ionel Valentin Vlad
President of the Romanian Academy 2014 – 2017
Academician Ionel Valentin Vlad devised the first solid active medium laser in Romania, and founded the Holographics Laboratory at the Bucharest Institute of Atomic Physics. The results of his research in the field of holographics, the optical processing of information, non-linear optics, quantum optics, nanophotonics and laser measurement instruments have been presented across hundreds of scientific works, and gained three invention patents of which one was awarded in the United States. Ionel Valentin Vlad established the Romanian Academy’s School of Advanced Studies (SCOSAAR), whose organizational structure is compatible with European doctoral schools. He coordinated the evaluation of the Academy’s research institutes, and helped elaborate the Academy’s overall Research Strategy, in close correlation with the National Strategy for Research, Development and Innovation and with the “Horizon 2020” European research programme. An associate professor of the Faculty of Physics at the University of Bucharest, Ionel Valentin Vlad was a visiting professor and lecturer in universities across Europe, the United States, Japan and Latin America. He was a member of the American Optics Society, the European Optics Society, the International Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE – United States). The loss of such a remarkable personality in December 2017 constitutes an irredeemable loss for Romanian culture and science.
Adrian Curaj
Minister of Education 2016
General Director of the Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation (UEFISCDI)
A Professor at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Adrian Curaj is a member of the Romanian National Commission for UNESCO, a member of ARCOR (the Romanian Association of the Club of Rome), a member of the Board of the US Fulbright Commission in Romania, as well as the Romanian representative to the Bologna Follow-Up Group. Adrian Curaj is, moreover, a project coordinator, expert and/or consultant in various research and development projects financed by the World Bank, UNESCO, UNIDO, the European Training Foundation (ETF) and the European Commission for Higher Education.
Members of the World Academy of Art and Science, nominated by the World Academy’s Board of Trustees
Garry Jacobs
CEO at World Academy of Art and Science
A writer, researcher and consultant in the fields of business management, socioeconomic development and global governance, Garry Jacobs is the Executive Director of the International Centre for Peace and Development in Napa, California, and a member of the Club of Rome. Before his appointment as CEO of the World Academy of Art and Science, he coordinated the WAAS’ project on the Global Employment Challenge. In collaboration with Ivo Šlaus, he developed the Human Economic Welfare Index, an alternative measurement to GDP.
Alberto Zucconi
Chairman of the World Academy’s Board of Trustees
President of the Institute for a Person-Centred Approace (IPCA), Italy
Alberto Zucconi has worked as a trainer, lecturer and consultant for public and private organizations at the international level, and is currently a Postgraduate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Siena (Italy). He has authored several articles and volumes on psychology, psychotherapy and the promotion of health, and initiated and led numerous research projects. Dr. Zucconi is a Fellow of the International Leadership Forum (ILF).
Nebojša Nešković
Secretary General of the World Academy of Art and Science 2013-2018
Head of the TESLA Project 1997-2007
Chairman of the Serbian Association of the Club of Rome
Professor Nebojša Nešković specializes in the field of particle accelerator technologies. His undergraduate studies in physical engineering and his PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Belgrade were enhanced by postdoctoral studies at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, United States. He has held various positions within the Vinča Institute for Nuclear Sciences in Belgrade. The TESLA project he coordinated represents an innovation in the field of accelerator technology, essential to both the general sciences and, in particular, to medicine. The TESLA Scientific Centre brought together 15 educational and scientific institutions in Central and South-Eastern Europe under Professor Nešković’s leadership.
Alongside his professional experience, Professor Nešković also cultivated an impressive academic career, becoming a member of the Serbian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, and of the Scientific Council of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia.
Thomas Reuter
University of Melbourne
Member of the Board of Trustees of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS)
Professor Reuter is an anthropologist at the University of Melbourne, whose research focuses on transformative social changes and sustainability in Asia and beyond. He is a member of the World Academy’s Board of Trustees, the former chair of the Global Council of Antropological Associations and a former executive member of the International Scientific Council. A frequent advisor to international organisations and national governments, Professor Reuter has published 15 books as well as over 150 articles.
Fadwa El Guindi
Member of the Board of Trustees of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS)
Professor Fadwa El Guindi, UCLA, is a former Distinguished Professor at University of Qatar. She holds a PhD in 4-field anthropology from the University of Austin, Texas (1972). El Guindi joined the Social Research Center (AUC) and its research team on the Nubian Research Project, financed by the Ford Foundation. She resigned her position with the SRC in order to accept her first faculty position at UCLA. Her fieldwork experience spans three cultural regions: Nubia, the Zapotec, and the Arabian Gulf. She has published 8 academic volumes, 3 award-winning visual ethnographies and over than 140 research articles, many in prestigious scientific journals. Her expertise on the Middle East brought her to the Clinton White House, and she frequently gave lectures to diplomats assigned to the Middle East at the Foreign Service Institute of the US State Department. Professor El Guindi has received many awards and honors for her research activity.
President of the Romanian Academy
Ioan Aurel Pop
Member of the European Academy of Science and Art
Rector of the "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca (2012-2020)
Graduating in Mediaeval History from the Faculty of History and Philosophy of the "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, Ioan-Aurel Pop received his PhD in History from the same university in 1989, with a thesis titled "Adunările cneziale din Transilvania în secolele XIV - XVI" ("Ducal assemblies in Transylvania in the 14th – 16th centuries").
Between 1991 and 1992, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for a visiting professorship at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1993, he became the Director of the Centre for Transylvanian Studies in Cluj-Napoca, and was the Director of the Romanian Cultural Centre in New York between 1994 and 1995. In 1996, he became a tenured Professor at the "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, and, later, the Rector of this prestigious university for two terms of office between 2012 and 2020. Between 2003 and 2007, he was an Associate Professor at the "Ca' Foscari" University and the Director of the Romanian Institute for Research in Culture and the Humanities in Venice. Between 2012 and 2013, he was an Associate Professor at the University of Trento.
Ioan-Aurel Pop's scientific output focuses on the research of Romanian and Central and South-Eastern European mediaeval history, focusing on mediaeval Romanian institution, Romanian and Slavic political formations in Transylvania, relations between Transylvanian Romanians and their counterparts outside the Carpathian Arch, the Byzantine influences over Romanian culture, relations between Transylvania and Central and Western Europe, and on the region's ethnic and confessional structure.
Over the course of his academic career, Ioan-Aurel Pop has been a member of the Commision on the History of International Relations of the International Committee of Historical Sciences in Milan, a member of the Ateneo Veneto and of the Institute for International Sociology in Gorizia, the President of the Institute for the Study of Imperial Policy in Oradea (operating under the aegis of the Romanian Academy, the University of Oradea and the State University of Chișinău), President of the Romanian representation to the Bilateral Commission of Historians from Romania and the Russian Federation, Vice-President of the National Committee of Historians in Romania, a member of the Scientific Councils of the Research Institute in Social and Religious History in Vicenza, Italy, of the National Museum of Transylvanian History and of the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania, a member of the European Academy of Science and Art in Salzburg, a member of the Directorial College of the European Centre for the Study of Ethnic Issues at the Romanian Academy and of the National Council for the Accreditation of University Titles, Diplomas and Certificates (CNATDCU) at the Romanian Ministry for National Education.
The President of the Romanian Academy was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universities of Alba Iulia, Timișoara, Oradea, Cahul, Galați and Sibiu, the Chișinău State University, the "Ion Creangă" Pedagogical University of Chișinău and by the "Petru Maior" University of Târgu Mureș. He is an honorary member of the Moldavian Academy of Sciences, a corresponding member of the Central European Academy of Science, Letters and Arts (L'Académie Centrale Européenne des Sciences, des Lettres et des Arts) in Paris and a member of the National Virgilian Academy in Mantua.
He is the author of over 500 studies and scientific papers, as well as over 70 authored and co-authored volumes appearing at prestigious publishing houses in Albania, Argentina, Austria, Czehia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, , Poland, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, the United Kingdom and the United States. He is the Director of the "Transylvanian Review" ISI-accredited journal, and a member of the editorial boards of "Mediaevalia Transilvanica," "Zavoda za hrvatsku povijest" (Zagreb), "Magazin Istoric," "Banatica," "Eurolimes," "Xenopoliana," "Destin Românesc" ("Romanian Destiny," Chișinău), "Studia Universitatis Petru Maior", "Orașul" ("The City") "Tribuna" ("The Tribune"), "Columna" ("The Column"), "Crișana antiqua et medievalia," "Brukenthal. Acta musei," "Acta Terrae Septemcastrensis."
A laureate of the "Astra" Magazine Annual Award, the "Magazin Istoric" Foundation Prize and of the "George Barițiu" Prize of the Romanian Academy, Ioan-Aurel Pop is a Commander of the Military Order of Romania, decorated with the Order "For Cultural Merit" in the rank of Knight, the National Order of the "Star of Romania" in the rank of Knight, the Order of the Romanian Crown in the rank of Commander, the Order of Honour of the Presidency of the Republic of Moldova and with the "Transylvanian Cross" Medal of the Archbishopric of Cluj-Napoca.
The Rector of the University of Bucharest
Marian Preda
Dean of the Faculty of Sociology and Social Services (2008-2015)
Chairman of the Romanian Society of Sociologists (2010-2012)
Director of the Human Resources, Management and Marketing Research Centre (2008-present)
Chairman of the Presidential Commission for Social and Demographic Risk Analysis (2009-2010)
A university professor and sociologist, since 1990 Marian Preda has worked closely with the University of Bucharest. He entered the leadership body of the University’s Faculty of Sociology and Social Services first as pro-dean (2000-2008) and later as dean (2008-2015). He was the President of the University Senate between 2015-2019. Marian Preda is part of the first cohort of sociology students to graduate after the Romanian Revolution of 1989, and holds two Masters degrees – one, in social policies, from the University of Bucharest, and the other, in Business Administration, from Tiffin University, United States, in 2006. He has undertaken several professional formation courses abroad, including at the Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and a Fulbright scholarship at the George Washington University.
In the past 25 years, in parallel with his academic career, Marian Preda has acted as manager, consultant or expert in numerous nationally and internationally-funded projects, collaborating with organizations such as the United Nations – in particular, with UNICEF and UNDP –, the World Bank, Bernard Brunhes International (BBI) and the European Commission, through the PHARE and POS-DRU programmes. He was the Chair of the Presidential Commission for Social and Demographic Risk Analysis (2009-2010), the Chair of the Romanian Society of Sociologists (2010-2012), of the National Statistics Council at the National Institute for Statistics (2016-2018, 2018-2020). The author or co-author of 26 volumes (of which two as sole author, and five as principal author or coordinator), Marian Preda has also published numerous scientific articles in respected journals.
He was elected Rector of the University of Bucharest in December 2019.
The Rector of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj-Napoca
Adrian Petrușel
Interim Rector of the "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, since December 2024
Pro-Rector fot Research, Development, Innovation and Relations with Doctoral Schools (2020-2024)
Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science (2012-2020)
Editor-in-chief of the "Fixed Point Theory" and "Fixed Point Theory and Applications" scientific journals
A tenured Professor of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, with an academic career of over three decades, Adrian Petrușel, the interim Rector of the "Babeș-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca, is recognized as one of the most valuable Romanian researchers in the field of mathematics, ranking in the top 2% of internationally-cited scholars worldwide.
An Expert of the National University Research Council, he coordinates PhD candidacies in the field of mathematics at the "Babeș-Bolyai" University. A member of several national and international specialty commissions and the editor-in-chief of the "Fixed Point Theory" and "Fixed Point Theory and Applications" scientific journals, he sits on the editorial boards of a number of prestigious international academic publications, among them "Scientiae Mathematicae Japonicae;" "Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai, Mathematica;" "Annals of the Tiberiu Popoviciu Seminar;" "Mathematica;" "The Journal of Nonlinear Sciences and its Applications;" "FILOMAT;" "Applicable Analysis and Discrete Mathematics;" "Journal of Function Spaces;" "Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society;" "Miskolc Mathematical Notes;" "Linear and Nonlinear Analysis;" "Communications in Nonlinear Analysis;" "Applied Analysis and Optimization;" "Journal of Nonlinear and Variational Analysis;" "Acta Universitatis Sapientiae."
Over the course of his career, he was a visiting professor at universities across the world, and is a member of several scientific and academic organizations – among them, the Romanian Society of Mathematical Sciences (since 1994); the American Mathematical Society (since 1994); the European Society of Mathematics (since 2003); the Working Group on Generalized Convexity and Monotonicity (since 1998), and the Romanian Academy of Scientists (since 2016).
The Rector of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași
Liviu Maha
Since 1999, Liviu Maha has been a Professor in the Department of International Relations at the Faculty of Economics and Business Management of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iași. His main fields of scientific interest include economic resilience, international labour migration, economic integration processes, the evolution of the business environment, international commerce, the shift towards corporate transnationalism, the European single market, as well as structural and cohesion funding pathways.
Since 2005, Professor Maha has coordinated the Faculty of Economics' undergraduate programme on "International Economics and Business"; since 2007, he has also coordinated an MA programme on "Regional Development" at the University's Centre for European Studies.
Professor Liviu Maha is a member of the National Registry of ARACIS Evaluators - PhD coordinators in the field of " International Economics and Business" - since 2014, as well as an independent evaluator for different study programmes and a member of consultative thematic groups for the National North-East Region in what regards the elaboration and implementation of Regional Operational Plans (2014-2020, 2021-2027). He is also a member of the National Evaluation Network in Romania, operating under the aegis of the Ministry of European Funds.