Emil Constantinescu

Constantinescu, Emil

Constantinescu, Emil

President, Romanian Academic Forum; Member of Board of Trustees, World Academy of Art & Science
Job Title: 

President, Romanian Academic Forum; Member of Board of Trustees, World Academy of Art & Science

Dr. Emil Constantinescu, former President of Romania (1996-2000) and leader of the Romanian Democratic Convention (1992-1996), is currently the President of the Romanian Academic Forum, the Honorary President of the Bucharest University Senate and Professor at the Faculty of Geology at the same university. He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest and started his career as a geologist. Formerly he served as Rector of the University of Bucharest, President of the Romanian National Council of Rectors, member of the Steering Committee of the European University Association, and the International Association of University Chairmen. Emil is currently a member of the Board of the Institute for East-West Studies in New York, of the Balkan Political Club; co-chairman of World Justice Project and of several geological and mineralogical societies. He has delivered lectures at many universities worldwide, acting as Chairman and Key-Speaker at prestigious international congresses and conferences. He studied Law at the University of Bucharest, and obtained a PhD in Geology from the University of Bucharest, a Sc.D. from Duke University, USA, and honorary doctorates from universities in several other countries. A scientist, researcher, active politician and committed civil servant, Emil has published extensively on mineralogy as well as on political, economic and educational issues. He has been awarded numerous distinctions and awards.

ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR

Managing Uncertainty – A Challenge for Contemporary Society*
Emil Constantinescu
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The certainty-uncertainty binomial expressed across history is the contradictory human nature and its struggles. Totalitarian systems have exaggerated the value of certainty. Dictators have gained power by promising safety and have remained in power in the name of law and order, while revolutions broke out where immobility became unbearable for the human need for change. Although uncertainty may prove difficult to eliminate or to rule out, it should not be...
Higher Education and the New Society of Third Millennium*
Emil Constantinescu
Get Full Text in PDF 1. Education: Expansion and Hostility Almost half a century ago, the band Pink Floyd had an explosive success with their song “We Don’t Need No Education”. In 1968, students on riot in American campuses or in the great European universities were shouting, as democratically as possible, “il est interdit d’interdire”, militating against the Vietnam War. They were also protesting against famous traditional courses, such as archaeology or classical languages. In March 2006, in...
Memory of Suffering and the Pedagogy of Freedom*
Emil Constantinescu
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Romanians lived under a dictatorship that cancelled the freedom of movement, all forms of free expression and oversaw the personal life of every citizen by political police surveillance. Afterwards they endured a post-totalitarian transition whose social price was heavily paid. For people of my generation, democracy is not an abstract concept and any situation that undermines democracy and prejudices freedom affects us deeply. When oppression, censorship, terror...
Building up European Solidarity, a view from the East*
Emil Constantinescu
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The cultural dimension or, multicultural models to be more precise, will represent the real foundation capable of ensuring Europe’s leadership in facing future challenges. Actually, the success of the European Union in the political competition of the third century will largely depend on its ability to restructure and to extend by including cultures and experiences of Central and South-Eastern Europe. Multiculturalism can and must be lived as a sign of respect for...
Golden Fleece: Higher Education and the New Society of Third Millennium
Emil Constantinescu
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract A complex vision on higher education in the 21st century should not neglect the experience of two millennia of civilization, in which democracy and education have enhanced and sometimes even opposed each other, reflecting the contradictory nature of the human being. The democratization of knowledge has been a key component of the progress of civilizations, in a direct relationship with the social environment. Globalization has opened a market without frontiers for...
Looking for a New Alchemy: From the Lead of Information to the Gold of Knowledge
Emil Constantinescu
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract There is a general agreement about the main characteristic of the contemporary ways of progress. Knowledge is unanimously recognized as its driving force. What is less unanimous is a comprehensive definition of knowledge itself. In many documents, analyses, working papers and so on, the term is considered as universally understood, but in fact, there are many competing significations on the market. Too many of these definitions confound information and knowledge,...