Collective work - Page 35 of 46 - The Academy of Romanian Scientists

Trends and challenges in modern corporate governance

POINTS OF VIEW

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29/06/2022

Speech to participants at the Corporate Governance Day at the Summer Banking Academy 2018, organised by the IBR on 26-29 June 2018.

Prof. Nicolae Dănilă, PhD
Member of the Academy of Romanian Scientists
Chairman of the Board, Piraeus Bank Romania

I express the opinion that this year’s Summer Banking Academy can and should be a moment of reflection, which will generate strategic decisions in the Romanian banking life. When I say these things I base them on:
– The chosen theme,
– High professional and managerial level of the participants,
– I.B.R.’s continuous drive for efficient bank management.

I place all this in the current domestic and international context, which calls for action and innovation. At the international level, the European Banking Authority has recently indicated a number of priorities in relation to the complex area of Corporate Governance. The Authority calls for the application of corporate governance to take into account international best practices and the provisions of the New Guidlines issued by the EBA. According to these provisions, executive management must run the bank “in a manner consistent with the business strategy, risk appetite and other policies approved by the Board”.

I. The priorities indicated by the EBA are:

a) Supervisory function of the Board:
According to this function, the Board must be made up of experienced members, dedicated to this activity, to which it must allocate sufficient time. Board members must have managerial qualities, knowledge, and the composition of the Board must cover well the tasks of special committees and interaction with shareholders and the bank, as this activity also implies accountability of the members.

b) Independence of Board members:
This priority implies a sufficient number of independent members in: risk, audit, remuneration, nomination committees. The general rule to be respected is: “Independence of mind and collective ownership”, in the sense that every member’s opinion counts. Once the decision has been taken, “the Board must take it as one and stand for it as one”, which means taking the culture of debate, diversity of opinion and risk culture to the next level.

c) Link between the Board and internal control functions
Risk management, compliance and internal audit will liaise continuously with the Bank’s structures, informing them of the Board’s decisions, monitoring their implementation and regularly informing the BoD.

d) Risk Appetite
Risk management must be integrated and linked to the bank’s strategy and risk strategy. Management levels in the bank and internal rules must stimulate risk appetite, finding solutions in correlation with current banking regulations and requirements.
Risks cannot be eliminated; Risk taking and Risk mitigation are part of the banker’s life. Risk aversion should not characterise it. Good risk management brings opportunities and solutions that will create net value for customers and the bank.

e) Quality of information and reporting
Practising good risk management in this area involves aggregated risk data and risk reporting.

II. Next, we identified a number of challenges facing bankers in Romania:
– Reduced revenue and profit,
– Strengthened regulation and supervision (opening the way to the need to discuss the application of the proportionality principle),
– Small budgets allocated to implementing new technologies and innovation,
– Rigid organisational structures,
– Conflicting, conservative internal views and mentalities,
– Competition.

III. In this context, I will bring up and consider some recommendations:
– The risk strategy must be well structured, implemented and followed. This must be a Traction and not a Brake in the bank’s activity,
– Cost reduction should not affect risk management, compliance and internal audit which are priorities for the banking system in 2018,
– Governance and risk management dedicated to the Digitisation phenomenon is needed,
– For IT there are 3 Safeguarding Directions: defining and implementing additional control over IT activity, establishing an IT strategy, incorporating digitisation and IT into the Audit Plan,
– Cybersecurity must be a priority,
– To think and act towards a high performance management in terms of a Team,
– Rapidly implemented innovation becomes a strategic imperative,
– Move from the Individual Management Model to the Complex Model to promote Productive and Dynamic Teams,

A business exists if it demonstrates responsibility and creates value in a sustainable way for its stakeholders: shareholders and society.

I recall how some famous bankers think and act and could be models for us.
Peter Sands, former CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, now a Professor at Harvard University says that “The public is asking high-level questions about the value that banks add to society and the trade-off between private gain and public risk. There is a fundamental challenge to the banks, both in terms of the right to play within the society but also in the ability to have a sustainable business model”.
The former CEO of Barclays Bank says that “the financial crisis of 2008 revealed how many banks were too aggressive, too self-serving and too focused on short term and I am convinced that only companies that consider the long-term impact on their actions on society will be able to build a sustainable business. In other words, there can be no choice between doing well financially and behaving responsibly in business”.
For his part, Andy Maguire – COO of HSBC said: “the banking industry needs to return to doing what it is supposed to be doing – serving real people, businesses and the economy, and win back the trust of society”.

At the European level, recent decisions and plans at EU level emphasise “socially responsible investments” by developing policies based on the rule that “Investing with an eye to environmental or social issues not just financial returns has become mainstream in the past decade”.

I express the view that every bank’s progress requires more than a change; it requires the implementation of a comprehensive Transformation Programme for every institution, starting with Changing the Mindset of some colleagues. A change is also needed in banking culture. Remember what Hugh Harper said, (EY) “culture has to ensure that it reflects its (bank’s, n.a.) purpose. Whereas corporate strategy looks three to five years into the future, purpose is about why the bank is in a certain place in a country and its essence for perhaps the next 30 to 50 years.”

IV. Principles that a Chairman of the Board should apply:
We have identified certain principles that we have applied successfully, that have proven effective internationally and that have even been mentioned in a recent Harvard study.

1) Chairman is a Guide
– It exercises restraint and creates conditions for others to shine,
– Conduct meetings in a way that makes them productive,
– He avoids saying the word “I” and does not spend more than 10% of the meeting time,
– Patience,
– It shies away from quick fixes, it leads to getting things right,
– Is Available: although part-time, devotes as much time as needed to solve problems.

2) Practice Team Spirit and not “team building”

– No man shall speak for the second time until all the others have spoken,
– Let the discussions continue until consensus is reached,
– It doesn’t rush to a vote to settle disputes,
– A vote is taken when it is concluded that the time has come for a specific, actionable resolution that is clearly worded, understood and supported by all.

3) Personal and meeting preparation
– Preparing the agenda through consultations with Board members and executive management,
– Each item on the agenda must be strategic, material, requiring a Board decision
– Materials should be concise, accompanied by an Executive Summary,
– Proposals with alternatives,
– Follow-up is very important.

4) Treat committees seriously, because they deal with the most important debates and analyses.

5) Remain Impartial
I believe that collective productivity suffers when the Chairman has a strong proprietary position on a subject. The chairman is a process facilitator.

6) Measure Inputs and not Outputs
The Board’s decisions will determine the course of each bank in the medium and long term. Good inputs are usually followed by good outputs. The literature identifies 5 critical inputs: 1) Board members, 2) agenda, 3) the materials presented, 4) how meetings are conducted, 5) board minutes. The most important input is the composition of the Board, as the human resource is the most important resource and gives the long-term competitive advantage.

7) Don’t think he is the “Boss”
Represents the Board in dealings with shareholders and the bank. The Board is the collective Boss. It is mandated to provide the executive management with: direction, strategy, resources, rules, accountability.

8) If for executive management the Boss is the Board, for the Board the Boss is represented by the shareholders.
The Chairman acts as an Agent of the Board and not as a singular Individual. The Board must implement the Leadership Function, to foster the conditions for Board members to form a Productive Group. He is not the first among equals, but a person responsible for making every Board member a GOOD member.

“AOSR and DIASPORA in Science and Technology”

Events

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29/06/2022

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We invite you on Thursday, March 10, 16.00, to the session “Academy of Scientists (AOSR) and DIASPORA in Science and Technology” organized by the Brasov Branch of AOSR and the Brasov Branch of ASTR – Prof.Dr.Fiz. Doru URSUTIU, Prof.Dr.Ing. Ivan CISMARU, Prof.Dr.Ing. Cornel SAMOILA

LINK ZOOM connection
Meeting ID: 869 7576 6172
Passcode: 362219

Name	Presentation	Romania Time
Arthur Dogariu – Princeton USA Honorary Member AOSR	“Remote optical diagnostics for aerospace and plasma physics”	16.00-16.10
Aristide Dogariu – Orlando USA	“Optics of complex environments”	16.15-16.25
Adrian Ionescu – EPFL Lausanne	”Technologies for future P3 Healthcare Digital Twins”	16.30-16.40
Simona Vasilache – Tsukuba Japan	“Cultural differences in approaching disciplines ICT/engineering”	16.45-16.55
Ramona Oros – EIT Digital Belgium	Presentation “EIT DIGITAL – projects and activities”	17.00-17.10
Strul Moisa – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ISRAEL	Start up: from disposable colon cancer detector to tunnel inspection robot	17.15-17-25
Diana Pop – TU WIEN	Presentation “TU WIEN – Institute for Microelectronics”	17.30-17.40
Dan Centea – McMater Canada	“Learning Factories” in universities, or the model for integrating elements of “Industry 4.0” into academia	17.45-17.55
DISCUSSION and closure		17.55-18.15

ARTHUR DOGARIU – Honorary Member of AOSR (Princeton, New Jersey, USA) – graduated from the Faculty of Physics (Măgurele) in 1990, and received his PhD in Physics from the University of Central Florida, School of Optics, in 1997. He is a current Professor at Texas A&M University and a Research Scientist at Princeton University in the United States, where his research topics include optical diagnostics and remote sensing using nonlinear and ultrafast optics. He is the author of over 90 publications, 200 scientific conference papers, and 6 patents. AD is a Fellow of the American Optical Society, a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and an Honorary Fellow of the AOSR.

ARISTIDE DOGARIU received his PhD from Hokkaido University and is currently an administrator and Pegasus Professor at CREOL, College of Optics and Photonics, University of Central Florida. His research interests include optical physics, electrodynamics, wave propagation and complex media. Professor Dogariu is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a recipient of the G. G. Stokes Award of the International Optical and Photonic Society.

ADRIAN IONESCU – is full professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – EPFL), Switzerland. He received his B.S./M.S. and Ph. diplomas from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania and the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, France in 1989 and 1997 respectively. He held staff and/or visiting positions at LETI-Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique, Grenoble, CNRS, Grenoble and Stanford University, Stanford, CA in 1998 and 1999. He is currently Director of the Nanoelectronic Devices Laboratory at EPFL. Prof. Ionescu has published over 600 articles in international journals and conference proceedings. His work has received the Andre Boldel Medal and IBM Faculty Award and multiple IEEE awards. Received an Advanced ERC Project for the development of low power technologies based on steep slope transistors. He is a member of the Swiss Academy of Technical Sciences (SATW).

SIMONA VASILACHE was born in Petroșani, Romania. He graduated from the Faculty of Automation and Computers of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, after which he worked for two years as a scientific researcher at the Institute of Transport Research in Bucharest. Her life’s journey took her to Japan, where she earned a PhD in engineering science at the University of Tsukuba. Here she is mainly involved in the university’s English language teaching programmes. Her students come to Japan to study social sciences or, in master’s and PhD courses, computer science. Her specialty is software engineering, but she has spent the last few years focusing on cultural differences in education, particularly in the teaching of IT subjects.

RAMONA OROS – was born in Brasov, Romania. She studied at Transilvania University in Brasov Romania, where she obtained a Master’s degree in International Business Administration and a PhD in Engineering Science in the field of Materials Science and Telecommunications. She started her career at Carinthia University of Applied Science – Villach Austria in 2021 as a researcher and member of European projects, and during the 6 years she became project manager. In 2018 Ramona continued her career at eseia – European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance in Graz – Austria as a project manager in the field of renewable energy and eLearning. Ramona is currently employed as a project manager and coordinator at EIT Digital Brussels – Belgium where she started her work as an innovation and support analyst in the EIT Digital Accelerator.

STRUL MOISA – He left Romania for Israel in 1977. However, immediately after December 1989 he returned to Romania, obtaining a PhD in Materials Science at the University of Brasov in 1999. In September 1991 he was the head of the Beer-Sheva delegation from Ben-Gurion University to the International Scientific Seminar “Modern Mechanical Design”, organized by the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. It was also the moment when he established his first contacts with Romanian academics, contacts that were developed year after year, their graph having a continuous ascending aspect. One of Dr Moisa’s guiding goals was – among others – to strengthen collaborative links with Romanian universities. It seems that the honorary title – Ambassador of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, to the universities of Romania, granted and reconfirmed by all the university’s rectors – is backed by a lot of hard work. Today, Ben-Gurion University of Beersheba has partnerships with almost all universities in Romania, and the Erasmus programmes are run with full seriousness.

In addition to his professional activities, Dr. Strul Moisa has also been involved in numerous extra-professional activities, including:

Member of the Israeli Association of Origins in Romania
Member of the Israeli Origins Organization in Dorohoi
Member of the Romania-Israel Friendship Association
Member of ACMEOR (World Cultural Association of Romanian Jews) etc.

DIANA POP – was born in Brasov. He received a bachelor’s degree in applied physics from Transilvania University of Brasov in 2009, a master’s degree in remote engineering and a master’s degree in international business administration from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences Austria in 2011 and 2016 respectively. Until August 2012 she was employed as a researcher and project manager of grant-funded projects at the same university. For the next two years she was a member of the IT Junior Talent Program of Infineon Technologies IT-GmbH in the Unix R&D team in Klagenfurt, Austria, and was later recruited as an EU-funded project coordinator in the Power Management and Marketing department of Infineon Technologies Austria in Villach. Diana is currently employed as a manager and project coordinator at the Institute for Microelectronics – TU Wien, Austria where she coordinates more than 25 research projects and a team of more than 50 researchers.

DAN CENTEA – graduated from the automotive faculty, worked for 10 years in the automotive industry, first as a designer of automotive components and then as a founding member and then manager of the calculation and modelling department of the National Institute for Automotive Research in Romania. Dr. Centea’s academic career began in 1991 at Transilvania University of Romania as an assistant professor in the department of engineering design. After graduating with an MSc in engineering in the UK at the University of Bradford, he moved to Canada in 1997, where he worked as a sessional instructor, then assistant professor and later associate professor at McMaster University. Dr. Centea has been involved in developing the McMaster Learning Factory site, securing funding to build it, working with students on several projects, and co-authoring nine research papers related to teaching activities. His outstanding contribution to the development of the McMaster Learning Factory has been recognized internationally by being accepted as a member of the International Association of “Learning Factories” and receiving the Outstanding Industry 4.0 Education Award presented by the International Society for Engineering and Operations Management.

Even if the restrictions are lifted, we must be cautious!

POINTS OF VIEW

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29/06/2022

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Prof. dr. doc. Alexandru-Vladimir Ciurea, Member A.O.Ș.R.

We have a time horizon, we have a better health situation, the lifting of the state of emergency is relatively close.

If we are not prudent, we risk returning to the current complicated situation!

But the good news is not enough to start getting back to normal (as “normal” as it gets). Lifting the restrictions shifts the responsibility of living with the virus onto all of us. This means that it is up to us to respect the rules established during the state of emergency.

The authorities will certainly make recommendations for the period after the lifting of the state of emergency. But recommendations are a double-edged sword. Because they are not accompanied by penalties – nor can they be! -, some of us may ignore them. Something that can affect us all. As we cannot and do not want to become policemen, only compliance with the recommendations can get us out of the crisis after 15 May.

We need to be rational and strong.

Let me give you an example. Parks will be reopened, but one of the recommendations will undoubtedly be to respect the physical distance between people. And another may be related to wearing the mask. Children will not go to school or kindergarten. This creates the conditions for overcrowding of parks and playgrounds. Failure to keep the recommended physical distance or lack of masks can be epidemiologically risky. But they can also be risky from another perspective. Conflicts can arise between parents whose children play too close together. Who are vying for a swing or a spot in the sandbox. Against the background of the stress created by the time we stayed at home, when some became unemployed or lost their jobs, when incomes fell, rates remained unpaid, it only takes a spark…. And we can “light up” in a way that in normal times we wouldn’t.

We need calm and wisdom.

I know that the call for reason and calm comes at a tense time for all of us. But calm and wisdom must prevail. However intense the inner nervousness, we can control it. And we need to control it.

How do we do this?

First, we take a few deep breaths before engaging in a verbal confrontation. Then we need to think that our interlocutor or interlocutors are in the same state of stress as we are. Once we have mastered our first impulse, if we still feel the need to challenge the person we think needs a verbal “correction”, speaking calmly and politely is the best solution. As the saying goes, “sweet talk goes a long way”. And if the “enemy” doesn’t react in kind, to avoid escalating a conflict that is damaging us with the stress it brings, we’d better give in.

We have to control our nerves and our egos.

We know that we are temperamental, like any Latin people. We talk long and loud. We interact verbally with great ease. That’s the way we are and it’s not bad at all that we are like that, don’t get me wrong. But the end of the state of emergency does not mean an immediate return to normality. The return to normality needs a period of “convalescence”, I don’t know how long. We ourselves need time because adaptation – or readaptation, if you want to call it that – takes time.

We need to do things progressively.

I go back to the example of going to the park. Even if it will be allowed, this does not mean spending all day in parks. My recommendation is to set yourself a schedule where all the things that have been off-limits for two months are done progressively. A walk a day or an hour or two with your child or pet in the park is enough at first. The same progressive formula applies to any other activity you want to do.

We will be like athletes returning to training after a long break.

No athlete comes back from a long break from training. He can neither physically nor mentally. If in a competition he runs a few kilometres, and in pre-competition training he runs dozens of kilometres, after the break he will gradually return to his athletic form. It will start with easy runs over short distances. He will get his muscles and internal organs used to the progressive effort. This is how we will be and this is how we will have to approach the return to normal. Little by little.

By taking care of ourselves, we take care of each other.

And we take care of the health system. By being careful and responsible, we will avoid new infections, but we will also avoid overloading hospitals, and therefore… disease!. The virus won’t go away by a long shot, but if we are prudent, we can live with this “enemy” without triggering an epidemic surge that will turn us back. Pandemic “relapse” again means a state of emergency, isolation, pressure on the medical system, patients, deaths. A return to emergency could have catastrophic effects not only in terms of the epidemic but also economically.

The economy can no longer afford another downturn.

In the two months of the state of emergency, our economy has been badly hit. Agriculture, too. In agriculture we are also in a drought situation. We must all get back to work, we must be serious and aware that the economy only works if we are healthy. And we will only stay healthy if we deal responsibly with the period after the lifting of the bans.

The authorities will progressively lift the bans.

But as we breathe easier, the role of each of us in minimising the risk of a re-emergence will increase. If we understand this, if we behave in a civilised way, if we avoid excesses of any kind, the return to normality will be quicker. We have proven, with only a few unfortunate exceptions, that we are a disciplined and coherent people. I’m sure it’s not just for fear of fines. By taking responsibility for taking back responsibility for ourselves and operating as we should, we will not only show that we have learned a hard lesson. We will prove that we are a normal people, capable of being united in the face of challenges. Whatever they are!

Education in the Knowledge Society

POINTS OF VIEW

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29/06/2022

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Dor more than three decades, Romanian schools have been facing a decrease in the level of general culture and knowledge among students. It is a phenomenon that does not seem to give rise to administrative concerns and which, as a result, is perpetuated and worsens from year to year. The learning reach of many pupils is shrinking, their knowledge of the fundamentals (literature, philosophy, history, geography, science, etc.) becoming fewer and shallower. The situation extends to the university level as students transition from classrooms to lecture halls (be they virtual, in the age of the pandemic).

The causes of the phenomenon refer to the school, but also involve the individual, the family and society. Speaking of the institutional framework of education, this is undoubtedly a matter of curriculum and approach. By limiting itself to subjects and curricular content treated as in a didactic Procrustean bed, the educational process loses its openness to the wider areas of knowledge. In the current paradigm, the act of teaching does not put information in wider contexts, does not build bridges to other disciplines and fields in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. The information transmitted is fragmented and isolated, without being integrated into a knowledge map, which, as it is realised, reveals meanings, connections and shapes the overall picture. It’s like a puzzle game, in which isolated pieces offer only suggestions and possibilities; when integrated, one by one, into thematic sequences, they progressively form the final picture, the spectacular result of a laborious and creative process. The school does not go beyond its curricular limits, looking at the themes within the strict perimeter of each discipline, without, through connections between notions, going beyond, into other territories of knowledge.

There are other causes. The average person seems to be losing more and more his curiosity to learn, to discover, to know. It’s a paradoxical effect in the age of technology, which constantly brings an avalanche of information from all fields. Amidst the influx of data, the individual no longer acutely feels the need to inform himself and understand through his own curiosity. Since the information comes to him on its own, via the internet and television, why should he make the effort to seek it out? Many thus become passive consumers of information, ceasing to be seekers, which would imply the involvement of thought processes, the tension of searching, the joy of discovery and understanding. The paradox is that they know more, but know less. When the loss of curiosity occurs in children and young people at the age of cognitive accumulation and personality structuring, things are even worse. In compensation, the low curiosity for cultural and scientific information is balanced by interest in minor topics, approached chaotically. Paraphrasing, we could say, “I’m curious, so I think”.

The situation also indicts the insufficiency of the necessary guidance in the labyrinth of knowledge and existence. We live in a world dominated by material values, in an area of consumerism, where man has been transformed from a thinking being into a consuming being. Consumers of everything: information, media content, food, goods, products and services of all kinds, useful or, more often than not, useless. A world like a fairground, under the sign of Black Friday, where everything is sold and bought, where big holidays become holidays of consumption and gifts, a space of manipulation, depiritualisation and deculturalisation. Overwhelmed by information, overwhelmed by commodities, preoccupied with accumulation or simply with taxes, instalments and subsistence, caught up in the whirlwind of unpredictable life, today’s individual no longer has time for culture and knowledge. The interest in cultural or scientific information, the concern for self-education, is declining sharply until it disappears in the face of dominant interests and existential priorities. Everything takes dramatic turns at a time of global crisis like today, when all crises converge: pandemic, economic crisis, energy, gas and oil crisis, war, human crisis.

In such a discussion, we inevitably come to technology and the relationship between the internet and the printed book. We are in the Information and Communications Age, in its infancy, a kind of digital Big-Bang. What’s next is hard to predict at the speed at which things are moving in the areas of innovation. Quantum computing is being perfected, virtual reality is becoming a second reality – which tends to swallow us all – every day, Artificial Intelligence is developing more and more promising and threatening. The Internet today offers us everything or almost everything in terms of information and entertainment. The book, as a source of ideas and knowledge, as a means of escaping into parallel worlds, has to lose out to the phone, the tablet or the laptop. Especially since reading is a time-consuming and neuron-intensive activity that requires concentration and isolation. In the common mind, what you can learn from books you find on the internet in much more dynamic and attractive forms, with pictures and interactive elements, in multimedia combinations, in an endless spiral of information, and not in hundreds of pages that you have to read and are not even sure you understand much of. What’s the point of knowing from the pages of books when you can find out anything – if you’re interested in anything – from the internet? Only – and this is generally ignored – the chaotic use of the internet provides fragmentary and superficial information, whereas reading generates a complex and deep knowledge of the topics covered.

The paradox of today’s world is that, in the Information Age and the Knowledge Society, younger generations (and not only them) know less and less. Even if they do their schoolwork, pass all the subjects and take the baccalaureate, the general culture acquired at school and the area covered by knowledge are increasingly limited. There are students (and not a few, unfortunately) who – at the most beautiful age of the mind, at the most fruitful age of curiosity – they have not heard of important authors and have not read fundamental books, they have no knowledge of the history of thought and civilisation, no notions about trends, theories, personalities and events, about man, the world and the universe.

Since all roads of knowledge lead to education, the solutions to the crisis of general culture are also to be found in schools. Starting from the educational ideal, which aims at the complex formation of young people, from an intellectual, moral and social point of view, developments and programmatic assumptions are necessary at the level of the relevant policies, regarding the mission of the school, the restructuring of contents and the modernisation of teaching strategies. Priority changes, in relation to the demands of today’s society, should aim at opening up the educational act to culture and knowledge in a broad and integrative perspective, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches, the involvement of digital technology tools in education. In this context, promoting reading as a way of accessing the world of knowledge, developing an attachment to printed books and getting closer to valuable works are among the fundamental means of returning to culture and recovering the cultural dimension of education.

If things remain as they are, our education system will continue to produce new classes of graduates with a limited horizon of knowledge and a reduced range of general culture. On the current course of development, the high school will continue to send young people to university with a limited knowledge base. Further, the university, which in turn focuses on profile content within increasingly narrow boundaries, often opaque to the universe of culture and general knowledge, will deliver to society graduates specialised (more or less) in one field but quasi-ignorant in others. Education in the third millennium must allow every young person to develop in the direction for which he or she has a vocation and inclination, but at the same time create the framework for the formation of a solid general culture and a comprehensive openness to knowledge. It is the kind of complex education that supports progress, necessary for any developing society, paradigmatic for a world of Knowledge.

Editorial, Education Tribune, No. 27, Series Nine, March 2022
https://tribunainvatamantului.ro/educatia-in-societatea-cunoasterii/

National Conference THE ROLE OF INNOVATION IN PREVENTING AND REDUCING HEALTH RISKS

THE VALENCES OF FEMINITY

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29/06/2022

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Prof. Univ. Dr. Mihaela Răescu – Titu Maiorescu University of Bucharest

– The values of femininity –
The conference will take place online on 25 August 2021, 16.00

AOSR Medical Sciences Section press release on vaccination against COVID-19

PRESS

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29/06/2022

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AOSR Medical Sciences Section press release on vaccination against COVID-19

The Medical Sciences Section of the Academy of Romanian Scientists considers vaccination as one of the greatest medical discoveries in history, comparable to the discovery of antibiotics, asepsis, antisepsis and anaesthetics. Without vaccinations the human species would today be almost defeated by microbial and viral species. In the current conditions, we ask Romanians to trust us and to help defeat the pandemic through vaccination. It is very important that every citizen applies all the rules indicated by doctors.

We have to accept that there may be, as in any therapeutic procedure, cases of failure, infinitely few in number, which cannot take away the huge benefits of the more than 98% of those who are successfully vaccinated. The changes in our environment force us to prevent further possible attacks by microbial or viral species. Within the Academy of Romanian Scientists, there is only the opinion of saving through vaccination, prevention and all treatments that sanction the effects of these viral attacks on the body functions. We call on the people of Romania to accept the perceptions of doctors, who have a large sample of casualties in this war on the pandemic. Please go for vaccination, trust the doctors, beware of the unknowing who give their opinion!

The AOSR medical section has illustrious physicians who have expressed their opinion, such as: Acad. Bălăceanu-Stolnici, the great neurosurgeon Vlad Ciurea, Professor Sorin Rugină, General Professor Dan Mischianu and Professor Irinel Popescu, and at our annual sessions evidence about this condition was presented by renowned medical specialists: Professor Streinu-Cercel, Irina Dumitru, Camelia Diaconu, Sebastian Ionescu and many others. I call you to stand with the army of white coats and, if you want to know the truth about this scourge, address your questions to our section members with the official contact addresses of the AOSR, an institution that has been serving the sciences in Romania for over 80 years since its foundation and is currently highly rated internationally. Prof. Dr. Sârbu Vasile, President of the AOSR Medical Sciences Section.

Departed Prof. univ. Dr. Dan SCHIOPU, founding full member, Vice-President of AOSR

In memory

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29/06/2022

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Departed Prof. univ. Dr. Dan SCHIOPU, founding full member, Vice-President of AOSR

The Presidium of the AOSR sadly announces that on 5 November 2021 he passed away Prof. univ. Dr Dan SCHIOPU, founding full member, Vice-President of AOSR, President of the Section of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, member of the Balkan Environmental Association (B.EN.A.), of the Society of Agricultural Engineers, of the Romanian National Society of Soil Science and of the Society of Agricultural History and Retrology.

He was born on October 4, 1930 in Galaţi, graduated from the Faculty of Horticulture at the Iaşi Agronomic Institute (1954) and obtained the scientific title of Doctor of Agronomy, Agrotechnical Specialty, in 1975. He had a prodigious university teaching career, starting as head of laboratory 1955-1966, then moving on to assistant professor 1962-1969, head of works 1969-1991, Lecturer 1991-1993 and University Professor since 1993, in the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest.

His teaching activity has been harmoniously combined with scientific research activity focusing in particular on tillage studies, vegetation factor management, increasing the efficiency of variance analysis in field experiments, integrated weed control and the residual effect of herbicides, agricultural ecology and environmental protection issues.

His numerous publications include books of great scientific and practical value, such as: Ecology and Environmental Protection, Méthodologie d’études des pollutions d’origine agricole. Conséquences pour l’environnement, Practical works on agronomy and experimental techniques, Guide for the correct and efficient operation of agricultural machinery and equipment, as well as scientific articles promoting the most valuable results of the research carried out, the most important of which are: Influence of temperature, humidity and fertilizers on mobile forms of nitrogen in a grey forest soil; Gheorghe Ionescu-Șișești – le visage et l’oeuvre d’un créateur d’école roumaine; Agriculture and pollution; Animal husbandry and agricultural ecosystems; Observations on the influence of alternative technologies with different degrees of chemization on the structural hydrostability of reddish-brown soil; Essay on Biodiversity Functionality; Aspects Regarding Ecological Condition of Pastures of Romanian Mountain Areas; Weeds and Agricultural Ecosystems; Integrierte Bekämpfung von Unkräutern in Soja und Maïs mit Herbiziden in Verbindung mit Maschienenhäcke; Essay on the Application of Fundamental Biocenotic Principles in Agricultural Ecosystems; Recherches concernant la lutte contre les mauvaises herbes dans la culture de maïs sur le sol brun-rougeâtre au sud de la Roumanie.

His contribution to the development of scientific research has been important, leaving to the present and future generations an outstanding scientific literature through his published books and articles. For his merits he has been honoured with numerous distinctions, awards and medals.

Our Academy loses a teacher, a scientist and a wonderful colleague! He is gone from us, but he will always remain in our hearts as a man of exceptional value, culture, professionalism, honest, friendly, magnanimous and kind! Sincere condolences to the family! God rest his soul in Peace!

Pandemic, a lesson we fail to learn

POINTS OF VIEW

aosradmin

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29/06/2022

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Prof. dr. doc. Alexandru-Vladimir Ciurea, Member A.O.Ș.R.

As I have written elsewhere, this pandemic has taken humanity by surprise and forced it to react quickly. For us, the situation was worse because the reaction of the authority was confused, hesitant, much delayed compared to other countries. The pandemic was and still is an x-ray of our functioning, from the level of the individual to the level of the state, and it has shown us and still shows us the weaknesses, the lack of preparedness and the lack of trust people have in state institutions.

In the pandemic, the medical system was full of heroes.
But this only shows the dedication of the doctors and health staff. And the relationship between medical heroism and health system functionality is inversely proportional. I mean, a successful system does not produce heroes. Only a poor, unprepared one can turn doctors and nurses into heroes.

I am repeating an idea I put forward in a recently published book: “Romania without a mask. False pandemic treatise” (written in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Adrian Restian and writer and publicist Tudor Artenie and published by Mediafax). “Doctors and medical staff chose to work in this field, no one forced them to do so. Their training is long and complex. They are professionals, and most of them combine their profession with their vocation. But the practice of the profession is dependent on many factors related to health management, public policies in the field, the material endowment of hospitals, the organization of institutions that make up the system. The list of ‘dependencies’ outside the practice of medicine is very long, and there is no shortage of obligations to keep abreast of developments around the world and research.”

The dependence of the medical system on the state has created oddities in Romania
And I say this with great …gentleness. Indeed, the European model of health development is one of linking health to the state in terms of what we define as solidarity. I think it is the most appropriate solution for these times. The administration of the system is a function of the state. But proper administration requires competence and honesty. Unfortunately, we have been and still are tributary to a perfectly feudal, politically controlled management.

The consequences of poor management were seen immediately
If you remember, at the beginning of the pandemic hospitals (not all of them, fortunately!) became hotbeds of infection. How was it possible? The answer is simple: the pandemic has found fertile ground in the medical system because it has not been prepared. The hospitals lacked protective materials, as well as information about the organisation of the hospitals, from access corridors to inefficiencies in communication with other units where cases had been registered. Remember the collapse of the Suceava County Emergency Hospital, which was put under military command? WHY?
Some rhetorical questions?

What would it be like to have everything we need? What would it have been like if the County Public Health Directorates had been trained?What would it have been like if all the DSPs in the country had been run properly by specialists in health organisation, not by politicians! What if we had contingency plans for pandemics or wars? If only we knew how to sort out hospitals and build field hospitals quickly? And, above all, what would it have been like if there were only professionals on all decision-making levels?

How do we fight wave 5?
The health system seems better organised. But we still don’t have enough beds in the Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Units. We have learned to work with COVID-19 cases, but have abandoned patients with other chronic diseases. In other words: we took from one side to cover the gap in another. I mumbled. And I don’t know if the authorities have understood that the healthcare system must be prepared for a crisis at all times. That the system must be dynamic, alert, flexible and responsive, whatever the reason for the crisis. What if a war starts and we’re affected?

Let me quote from the same book: “All governments have brutally intervened in the functioning of health institutions by putting political clients in decision-making positions. In some cases, the political clients were qualified people. But in many other situations, appointments to management positions were made solely on the basis of party card.” Has anything changed?

But what about us, us humans? We have gained experience and seem to have become accustomed to it, although habit in our situation can be dangerous. At the beginning of the pandemic, Romania was in one of the last places for soap consumption. I haven’t seen newer stats, but I want to believe we’re no longer in that place. What about the rules, have we learned them? I’m afraid to say yes!
Refusal to vaccinate is another issue to reflect on.

The pandemic has shown us that we have a lot of work to do in order to be coherent and reliable in crisis situations. And that we also have a responsibility, not just the state or the medical system.

Beyond wearing a mask, washing your hands or keeping a physical distance, even if vaccination is not mandatory (nor should it be!), vaccination is our responsibility. And if we don’t want to get vaccinated because Bill Gates is planting chips in our bodies, we can do it by thinking of those around us. And if we don’t care about the people on the street, on the bus or in the theatre, maybe we care about our children, our parents or our grandparents.

Science has shown that older people are more vulnerable to the coronavirus. They get sicker than young people. Many have chronic conditions, comorbidities. How do you go home to your parents without being vaccinated? How can you not take them to get vaccinated? But, the puppy we take with two hands to the vaccination… How do people without book science manage to convince by stupid Facebook posts that the vaccine is not good? I, for one, don’t understand!

To get out of this pandemic, to overcome wave 5 with as few victims as possible, we need individual responsibility. If the state is wrong, it doesn’t mean we have to be wrong. That is why I strongly recommend that you follow the rules and think twice, on your own or after a discussion with your GP, about getting vaccinated, those of you who haven’t!

I wish you all wisdom and good health!

Conference GLOBALIZATION THROUGH ACADEMIC MOBILITY

aosradmin

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29/06/2022

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Conference GLOBALIZATION THROUGH ACADEMIC MOBILITY – Dr. Head of International Relations Department, Iulia ALECU BUZA –
Titu Maiorescu University, Bucharest

– The Valences of Femininity –

The conference will take place online on 23 March 2022, at 16.00 – Academy of Romanian Scientists

Romania does not need scientists, but politicians without culture and common sense!

POINTS OF VIEW

aosradmin

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29/06/2022

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Prof. dr. doc. Alexandru-Vladimir Ciurea, Member A.O.Ș.R.

I am indignant and sad at the same time!… For the second time in a row, the Academy of Scientists (AOȘR) is left without a budget by the Romanian Parliament. A wave of lies has poured from the pens of the so-called progressives, eager to destroy – without putting anything in place! – any symbol of Romanian society that does not “fit” under their control. Or, even worse, about which they know nothing, but feel that their superficiality and ignorance threaten them. And they are threatened by an attempt at political construction very similar to that of the Marxist regimes, which standardised everything or silenced any voice that did not correspond to the policies of the single party.

Folks, it’s come to the challenge in the US of George Washington, one of the founding fathers of that great state, just because Procust’s new bed won’t fit those who are not like progressives!… Stupid ideas become the punch lines of political demonstrations into which unsuspecting people are skillfully lured by skilled propagandists.

Why destroy when you haven’t built anything?

The most vehement opponents of the AOȘR are parliamentarians from the political combination of the USR party, led by Dan Barna, and the Plus party, led by Dacian Ciolos. There are politicians who have not yet proved anything. You’ll say they’ve just come to power. That’s true, but they have a lot of work to do, other things should be their actions, not destroying what they don’t understand. Or maybe it’s just the other way around: they know that scientists and scholars can’t be fooled by cheap slogans, and to prevent a backlash, these “progressives” want to silence them.

What legitimizes these “new people” to begin a process of purification on all levels to align society according to their rules? The vote? No way, nowhere in their political or government programmes did they write that they will destroy institutions they did not participate in founding. The position of partners in a government team? This argument doesn’t hold up either, power in the modern world builds up, not tears down. Or, when they demolish, they do so to provide space for a new building. So what? The desire to bury what they don’t agree with? This, my dears, is called dictatorship, and we have lived through it, the wounds of dictatorship have not yet healed. Progressives speak with emphasis about “new people”, as if they were unaware that the goal of the society of sad memory was precisely the construction of the “new man”. Which seems to have succeeded. The new man, the man without any God!

The Liberals seem to be led astray by these “new people”.

The Academy of Romanian Scientists was founded on 29 March 1935. It was called the Romanian Academy of Sciences. There was a need for a broader coverage of Romanian research and science values than the one provided by the Romanian Academy. The founder of the Academy of Sciences was, ironically, a liberal minister! Minister of Public Instruction, Dr Constantin Angelescu. A great surgeon, one of the founders of the Romanian school of surgery.

I expected that the PNL representatives would not accept the cut of the AOȘR budget. But today’s PNL is a far cry from what the Brătians built. Of what the founding fathers of this party, which played a full part in the creation of modern Romania, thought and wanted. A number of ministers and MPs who now represent the PNL have represented other parties in the past. These people were never genuine liberals. They migrated from pocket parties, came from the social-democratic political direction or were part of the orange “armada” that merged with PNL, altering, here, in depth, the spirit of that great Romanian party. What do we expect from those who not so long ago were raising hosannas to characters who are now fast approaching prison? Do these cheap politicians know what the NLP was all about? Do they know anything about the triumphs or suffering of the great politicians this party has produced? As you can see, they have no idea! And the fact that today’s liberals have stood shoulder to shoulder with these immature progressives in tearing down an institution built by their liberal forefathers only shows their character! Or rather, lack of character!…

Only the Communists had the courage to abolish the Academy of Sciences.

It happened in 1948, when progressivism was called Stalinism and true liberals were arrested and sent to camps and prisons. Have we really forgotten what we’ve been through? Can no one tell these young wolves in the cloak of dangerous progressivism that they are wrong? How much nerve to have done nothing in life, but to claim that people of value, as many as there are, because there are not many of them, must disappear?

How many surgeries have MPs responsible for health carried out? How many books have those who pretend to be doctors on the culture committee written? What contributions have children made to this new wave of hatred of Romanian science? How do you allow yourself to put in brackets people and institutions that have mattered and still matter for Romanian thought? Do you imagine that we no longer have to think? That our destiny is to be eternal asparagus pickers?!…

You probably don’t know, but you voted, as you are used to, that the Academy of Sciences was re-established under its current title, AOȘR, by another great professor and surgeon, a pioneer of the Romanian school of cardiovascular surgery, General Prof. Dr. Vasile Cândea. The AOȘR is, by law, the “continuator and sole legatee” of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. Do you know who was doctor Vasile Cândea? At least go to Wikipedia to find out…

You know that in the normal countries of the world, and here I am referring to the West, which you constantly claim as a source of inspiration and progress, there are such academies. In Belgium it operates under the auspices of the Royal House. And, yes, there are academies of scientists in New York, London and Paris. Did you know that the one in France was founded in 1666? I’m sure you didn’t know these “details” when you voted to leave the AOȘR without a budget!…

What’s next? Will you do the same with the Academy of Medical Sciences? Will you target other institutions with your progressive rifle? Will you leave anyone who doesn’t think like you without resources? Are you going to start a witch hunt just because you think you know something?

And after you’ve buried them all, what will you do? Will you bring in surgeons from abroad to operate on Romanian patients? Teachers from abroad to contribute to education to which you have given not shamelessly small percentage of GDP just now, when because of the pandemic and online learning there was a greater need for resources?

As I told you, I am outraged and saddened. I didn’t think that any Romanian politician would boast today, in the 3rd millennium and in a European Union country, that he is part of a perfidious thought police. And for those of you who want to comment on this text, I recommend that you read the composition of the AOȘR first, if you find the work of Romanian scientists too heavy!…