Born 150 years
\nago and having passed away in early November 1952, Nicolae Coculescu had his
\nname tied definitively to the Astronomical Observatory built in Carol Park in
\nthe Romanian capital city, Bucharest. In 2016, when we celebrate 150 years
\nsince his birth, the Romanian Academy, through its Astronomical Institute, pays
\ntribute to his personality and at the same time celebrates a major stage in the
\nhistory of Romanian science. Here is Magda Stavinschi, author of a biography
\ncalled Nicolae Coculescu: A Life Among Stars, giving us a few details about
\nCoculescu’s life. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Magda Stavinschi: He was
\nborn in Craiova and completed his primary and high school education at Carol
\nCollege, which at that time was the only high school in town. His father and
\ngrandfather were actually named Cocu, and they had been born in present-day
\nMacedonia, in a large community of Aromanians who moved to Oltenia, in southern
\nRomania. They later had major contributions to the Romanian economy and
\nculture. After graduating from high school, with fairly good results, he came
\nto Bucharest to attend the University’s Department of Sciences, where young
\npeople studied maths, physics and chemistry alike. He focused on mathematics,
\nand later on, on a branch of astronomy called celestial mechanics, which deals
\nwith the motions of celestial objects. After graduation, he got a scholarship
\nin Paris, where he also did an internship at the Astronomical Observatory. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As
\nfortune had it, in 1893 a total eclipse of the Sun took place, observable from
\nSenegal, and a large team of French astronomers went there. With support from
\nthe Romanian state, Coculescu accompanied the French team to make records of
\nthe beginning and the end of the eclipse. After that, he returned to Paris to
\npresent his Ph.D. thesis, coordinated by a leading expert in celestial
\nmechanics. Coculescu came back to Romania, as a professor with the Department
\nof Sciences, where he worked until 1937. He was also the dean of the Department
\nand, for a brief period, even pro-rector of the University of Bucharest.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It was during
\nthis time, more specifically in 1908, that the Astronomical Observatory in
\nCarol Park was officially opened. It had been built several years before in the
\neastern part of Bucharest, on Filaret hill. Nicolae Coculescu was the first
\ndirector of this observatory. Here is Magda Stavinschi again:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
On April
\n1, 1908, scholar Spiru Haret, who was the Minister of Education, signed a
\ndecree on the establishment of the Meteorological and Astronomical Institute.
\nAt that time, a meteorological institute was operational in Carol Park, which
\nincluded an astronomy section. As it was natural, meteorology then got
\nseparated from astronomy, in 1920. Coculescu was not only the first director of
\nthis institute. He was actually the one who laid the cornerstone of this
\nbuilding. He was the one who commissioned all the items and equipment there,
\nfrom building materials to scientific instruments. The two instruments ordered
\nby Coculescu at that time are now part of the national heritage. These are his
\nkey merits.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Retired in 1937,
\nCoculescu lived until 1952, and witnessed the first years of the communist
\nregime, which he disagreed with and which, in turn, denied his accomplishments,
\nas Magda Stavinschi told us:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The last
\npart of his life was terrible for him. Except for some degree of international
\nrecognition, in the form of an award granted by the French Academy of Sciences,
\nhe struggled hard for survival during those years. He had got to a point where
\nhis pension only covered the price of a glass of milk in the morning and one in
\nthe evening. It was probably his Aromanian resilience that enabled him to
\nsurvive to a relatively old age and to cope with all problems.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
All the major
\nevents in Nicolae Coculescu’s life are discussed in separate chapters in Magda
\nStavinschi’s book. Nicolae Coculescu: A Life Among Stars is a page-turner,
\njust as exciting as a novel, writes another scholar, Basarab Nicolescu, on the
\nbook jacket.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nicolae Coculescu’s name is tied to the Astronomical Observatory in Bucharest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":168445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45339,45338,45337],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-a-life-among-stars","tag-bucharest-astronomical-observatory","tag-scholar-nicolae-coculescu"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n