The exhibition “Radu Balescu – The Man and the Scientist” was opened on Tuesday at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where the memory of the Romanian-born Belgian scientist was evoked by members of the Royal Academy of Belgium and the Romanian Academy as well as former close co-workers.
Photograph taken at the “Radu Balescu — The Man and the Scientist” exhibition held in Bucharest in September 2012
Photo credit: (c) Sorin LUPSA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE
AGERPRES correspondent Florin Stefan reports that among those that spoke of Radu Balescu as a scientist and a man were Paul Vandenplas, a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium and a close friend of the scientist, Marius Sala, vice president of the Romanian Academy, former co-workers Boris Weyssow and Daniele Carati, currently professors at ULB, but also Romania’s ambassador to Belgium Stefan Tinca, and the director of the of the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) in Brussels Robert Adam.
Boris Weyssow stated that he worked with Radu Balescu for over 20 years and mentioned that the equations devised by the Romanian scientist are currently still in use.
“I regularly visit Romania four times a year. I’ve learnt to love Romania because he used to go there and I would travel with him and I’ve realized that it’s truly an incredible country. On an educational level you have youths that are trained in a manner superior to what we have here most often and it’s a pleasure to meet people there in Romania, because they are very attentive and want to do things right”, said the former collaborator of Radu Balescu.
Jean-Pierre Devroey, director of the ULB archives, stated, in his turn, that for the Universite Libre de Bruxelles it was an honor to host an exhibition of the Romanian Academy dedicated to a “great scientist and professor that worked in the university his entire career”.
He stated that an important element that the exhibit illustrates is the scientist’s wish to help Romania after 1989. “What is extraordinary about Radu Balescu is that, after the turning point in 1989, he could give back all that he held in his heart for his country of origin, to make the connection between his adoptive country, given that he was naturalized Belgian, and the place he was born”, said Jean-Pierre Devroey.
“There’s very special ties between Romania and Belgium, and the Royal Academy of Belgium and the Romanian Academy because, when we look to the east, Romania is our Latin sister, that’s what could be felt in the musical accent of Radu Balescu, in his warmth, and I believe it’s one of the great characteristics of the Romanian people”, said the director of the ULB archives.
Radu Balescu (1932-2006) started his academic career at ULB in 1957, as assistant to scientist Ilya Prigonine, Nobel Prize laureate for chemistry (1977). The Belgian scientist of Romanian origin was a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium and an honorary member of the Romanian Academy. Radu Balescu was awarded in 1970 the Francqui prize, the Belgian equivalent of the Nobel prize, for his activity in the realm of statistical physics of charged particles and his contribution on the theory of transport of magnetically confined plasmas.
The exhibition conceived by the Library of the Romanian Academy and organized with the help of ULB, the Romanian Embassy in Belgium and ICR Brussels, will be open to the public until May 20. AGERPRES
