Ioan-Iovitz Popescu
Romanian physicist and linguist (1932–2023)
Ioan-Iovitz "Iovitzu" Popescu (October 1, 1932 – 22 December, 2023) was a Romanian physicist and linguist, emeritus professor at University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, and member of the Romanian Academy. In the field of physics, he is best known for his work on gas discharges and plasma physics, as well as his collaborations with Denisa Popescu in laser spectroscopy. He also had pioneering contributions in the field of gamma-ray lasers with Carl B. Collins and Silviu Olariu.
As of 2006, the focus of Iovitzu Popescu's work had shifted towards the field of linguistics, in cooperation with leading linguist Gabriel Altmann.
Early life
Iovitzu Popescu was born in Burila Mare village, Mehedinți County. He is the son of Dumitru Popescu and Elvira (née Iovitz). In 1951 he graduated from Traian High School in Turnu Severin. Between 1951 and 1955 he was a student at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, from which he graduated in 1955 with the thesis "Sodium-Vapor Lamp", supervised by Radu Grigorovici.
Career
In 1955, following graduation, Iovitzu Popescu was offered a position at the University of Bucharest by Eugen Bădărău, in the Department of Optics and Gas Discharges, which he accepted. In 1961, he obtained his Ph.D. on a thesis entitled "The mechanism of cathodic parts of glow discharges", under Bădărău's supervision.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ioan-Iovitz Popescu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.