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Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1996, 35, 2822
Professor Eli Ruckenstein. His Activity in Romania The Chemical Engineering Department of the POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest wishes to pay homage to Professor Eli Ruckenstein on the occasion of reaching the age of 70 by presenting his activity in Romania during 1944-1970. Prof. Eli Ruckenstein was born in Botosani, Romania, on August 13, 1925. He attended “August Treboniu Laurian” secondary school in Botosani between 1932 and 1944. From 1944 to 1948 he was enrolled in the Industrial Chemistry Faculty in the POLITEHNICA Institute of Bucharest, and after the diploma examination in 1949, he received the title of Chemical Engineer, speciality “Petroleum” with distinction, based on the maximum mark 20. He has been married to Velina Rothstein since 1948 and has two children, Andrei and Lelia. During 1949-1970, he was Professor at the POLITEHNICA Institute of Bucharest in the Department of Methods and Equipment in the Chemical Industry, actually the Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Department. At the titular Associate Professor competition in 1963, he has recognized by the competition board of examiners, Prof. Emilian Bratu, Prof. Serban Solacolu, and Prof. Isac Blum, as a trained researcher, passionately fond of research and having outstanding results in the fundamentals of chemical engineering. Twelve years after his academic appointment, he has already published 80 scientific papers in journals in Romania and abroad. In 1966 he defended his doctor’s degree, under Prof. Emilian A. Bratu’s guidance, with a thesis containing major contributions to the knowledge of momentum, heat, and mass transfer process mechanisms. When he left the country in 1970, he had already published more than 150 papers, mainly in journals of wide international circulation. Prof. Eli Ruckenstein was awarded the following prizes and titles in Romania: (1) The Prize of the Ministry of Education in Romania for research related to turbulent heat and mass transfer (1958). (2) The Prize of Ministry of Education in Romania for education (1961). (3) “Gheorghe Spacu” Prize for Research in the Surface Phenomena Field awarded by the Romanian Academy (1964). (4) “Doctor Honoris Causa” of POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest, Romania (1993). Prof. Eli Ruckenstein has decisively contributed to the initiation of fundamental research in chemical engineering and to the development of the Chemical Engineering School in Romania, founded by Prof. Emilian A. Bratu. His theoretical researches, developed in Romania in all the important fields of chemical engineering, are characterized by original ideas and new and daring approaches that opened research ways in the boundary fields with other disciplines like biology, material science, superconductivity, etc. His former colleagues from POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest and their students have followed, with special interest, the whole scientific work of Prof. Eli Ruckenstein, which is distinguished by the diversity and the profoundness in the treatment of problems regardless of the topic: thermodynamics, transport phenomena (solids included), colloids, advanced separations, catalysis and catalysts, bioengineering, new materials science and technology. The successes he has obtained are based not only on an encyclopedic knowledge in all the areas mentioned and in others but mainly in his ability, present from his youth, to elaborate new concepts and theories, to model the industrial and natural processes, and to discover surprising applications of those theories that are very important to our industry today. For us in Bucharest, Prof. Eli Ruckenstein is the model of the many-sided scientist that works in the huge domain of Chemical Engineering. On the occasion of having turned 70, the Chemical Engineering School in Bucharest, Romania, sends Prof. Eli Ruckenstein a warm homage, congratulates him for his prodigious scientific and didactic activity, wishes him happiness, new and remarkable achievements, and many happy returns of the day, and assures him that we are proud that, at the beginning of this career, he was a brilliant member of this school.
Professor E. Danciu* and Professor O. Muntean POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest, 77206 Bucharest, Romania IE9600452
S0888-5885(96)00045-0 CCC: $12.00
© 1996 American Chemical Society
