Petru Bogdan (1873-1944) – chemist, Romanian professor, member of the Romanian Academy

He attended The National High School of Iasi. Then he was a student of the Chemistry- Physics Department of the Faculty of Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, taking his bachelor’s degree in 1893. He was appointed teaching assistant at the Mineral Chemistry Laboratory, led by Professor Petru Poni. He went to Germany, where he specialized in physical chemistry at Leipzig and Berlin, taking his doctoral degree in 1901. He founded the first department of Physical Chemistry in Romania, being a professor of this new department between 1913 and 1940. In the 1926 – 1932 period he was Rector of the University of Iasi. During his research activity he approached all the fields of physical chemistry that were available at the time and published the first Romanian course on Physical Chemistry, in four volumes (I. Kinetics Theory II. Thermodynamics III. Electrochemistry; IV. Radioactivity).

In recognition of his scientific merit, he was elected member of the Romanian Academy in 1926. As a confirmation of the international visibility of his scientific work, he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Nancy.