On May 24, 2022, the 90th anniversary of the birth of the former General Prof. univ. dr. Vasile Cândea , prestigious personality of cardiovascular surgery and Romanian medicine. On this occasion, the Academy of Romanian Scientists organized a Session to commemorate and pay tribute to the great surgeon and professor, four-star general of the Romanian Army, who left us on January 14, 2020, and won a jubilee medal.
The event took place in the AOSR Hall and enjoyed a select participation, consisting of members of the academic body, leaders of the medical world, disciples of Professor Vasile Cândea, personalities of education, science and research. Prof. univ. dr. eng. Adrian Badea, president of AOSR, prof. univ. dr. eng. Doina Banciu, vice-president, scientific researcher I dr. Doru-Sabin Delion, vice-president, prof. univ. dr. eng. Petru Andea, scientific secretary.
The host of the event, President Adrian Badea , made, in a posthumous Laudatio , a complex portrait of Professor Vasile Cândea, in the essential data of life, activity and work. The evocation highlighted the fundamental hypostases of the activity and the scientific contribution of the commemorated one: surgeon, pioneering in the field of cardiovascular surgery in Romania, university professor, scientific researcher, scientist and mentor, creator of medical school, founder and manager of institutions, founder and president of the Academy of Romanian Scientists.
Born on May 24, 1932 in the village of Lisa-Vânători, Teleorman County, Vasile Cândea graduated from the Theoretical High School in Turnu-Măgurele (1951) and the Faculty of General Medicine of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest (1957). He obtained his doctorate in general medicine with the thesis “Lymphatic system in traumatic shock” in 1975. He was a unit doctor in Timișoara, Constanța and Bucharest between 1952-1962 and chief general surgeon at the Central Military Hospital between 1962 and 1972. From 1973, for 14 years, he was the head of the Cardiovascular Surgery Clinic of the Central Military Hospital, and, between 1990 and 1995, the Director of the Army Cardiovascular Disease Center. Between 1995 and 2002, he was the General Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases „C. C. Iliescu ”Fundeni. He was also the president of the Romanian Society of Cardiovascular Surgery. He developed a prodigious teaching activity at the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, in Bucharest, where he went through all the stages of evolution, from assistant (1972) to university professor and doctoral supervisor (1993). Through the value and quality of the teaching act, through the medical performances achieved, he was a teacher appreciated and loved by generations of students, a true mentor for future doctors.
In the 1996-2000 legislature, he was a member of the Romanian Parliament, a member of the Committee on Health and Family of the Chamber of Deputies. He has collaborated with leading cardiovascular surgeons worldwide (Prof. Charles Dubost, Dr. Marius Barnard, Prof. Armand Piwnica, Prof. Gösta Pettersson, Prof. Philippe Noirhomme) and has been a pioneer in this highly complex field. difficulty in Romanian medicine. He has made essential contributions in scientific research, introduced new techniques and procedures in cardiovascular surgery, conducted clinical and experimental research for the first time in Romania in areas such as: traumatic shock, lymphatic system in shock, lymphographic exploration of cervical lymphatics, brought, by also original contributions in diseases of the myocardium, lung, liver, pancreas and immune system, during and after extracorporeal circulation. Together with Prof. Philippe Noirhomme (St. Luc’s Hospital, Brussels), he implanted the first NOVACOR autonomous artificial heart in South-Eastern Europe.
He is the author of an impressive scientific work, composed of treatises, monographs, studies and research, of over 750 scientific papers presented at international congresses and conferences and published in specialized journals in the country and abroad. He was a member of the editorial board of specialized journals, founder and editor-in-chief of Annals of the Mediterranean Medical Entente , Romanian Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery , editor-in-chief of Archives of the Balkan Union , founder and editor of the Annals of the Academy. Romanian Scientists, new series. He was a member of several academies and scientific societies in the country and abroad, Doctor Honoris Causa of some famous universities, received a series of awards and distinctions, including: National Order “Star of Romania” in the rank of Knight (2002) , “Dr. Gheorghe Marinescu ”of the Romanian Academy, the title“ Man of the Year 2000 ”of the American Biographical Institute.
In this context, of a prodigious activity in the field of science, research and education, Professor Vasile Cândea had an essential contribution on the academic level: he was fully involved in recovering the status and in the reconstruction of a brand institution of the country: The Romanian Academy of Sciences , which became a law in 2007, Academy of Romanian Scientists . Founded in 1935 by the great physician and Minister of Public Instruction, Dr. Constantin Angelescu, the Romanian Academy of Sciences, which brought together first-rate personalities of Romanian science and Nobel Prize laureates, was abolished in 1948 by the communist regime and incorporated into the Romanian Academy, then transformed into the Association of Scientists. Reorganized after 1990, the institution regained its name as an Academy during the Congress of May 1996, when it became the Academy of Romanian Scientists. The founding act of the institution was constituted by Law no. 31/2007, by which the Academy of Romanian Scientists became an institution of public interest. In the process of reviving the Academy established in 1935, General Prof. univ. Dr. Vasile Cândea had the fundamental role of founder of the institution in post-communist Romania. He was the president of the Academy of Romanian Scientists until 2016, and then, until the end of his life, honorary president .
During the Session, several participants took the floor , evoking, from different angles and perspectives, the personality, activity and work of Professor Vasile Cândea. An extensive presentation of the life and work of Professor Vasile Cândea, from the position of the former disciple, made Gender. Prof. univ. Dr. Ion Țintoiu , personality of Romanian medicine, emphasizing the vocation, passion, dedication and rigor with which the Professor approached his field of specialization. He was a great doctor, a pioneer, with a fundamental contribution in heart surgery, studies, research and medical activity (over 50,000 surgeries), who collaborated with world leaders in the field and enjoyed the appreciation and friendship them.
They had substantial interventions regarding the Professor, in the stylistic key of the scientific presentation and the evocation doubled by emotion, personalities of the medical and academic world: univ. prof. dr. Irinel Popescu, prof. univ. dr. Horațiu Moldovan, univ. prof. dr. Dan Mischianu, Major General physician conf. univ. Dr. Florentina Ioniță-Radu, Commander of the Central Military Emergency University Hospital „Dr. Carol Davila ”Bucharest. Professor and Doctor Vasile Cândea also spoke His Eminence Theodosius, Archbishop of Thomis , univ. prof. dr. eng. Ecaterina Andronescu, president of the Department of Chemical Sciences of AOSR, prof. univ. dr. eng. Petru Andea, scientific secretary of AOSR, univ. prof. Dr. Eng. Valentin Pau, Vice President of Titu Maiorescu University of Bucharest. They sent messages dedicated to the homage of Professor Cândea writer Dinu Săraru, univ. prof. Dr. Vasile Sârbu , the president of the Medical Sciences Department of AOSR, prof. dr. eng Ivan Cismaru, the president of the Braşov branch of AOSR, prof. dr. Dan Zamfirescu, prof. dr. Nicolae Gorun, prof. dr. Gogu Gheorghiţă, the president of the Piatra Neamţ branch of AOSR, prof .univ. Dr. Iosif Urs, President of Titu Maiorescu University of Bucharest. President Iosif Urs underlined that Professor Vasile Cândea was one of the founders of Titu Maiorescu University and that, from the position of Vice-Rector, he contributed to its development under the auspices of quality, performance and competitiveness. Professor Cândea was and will remain a mentor and a mentoring spirit of the University, which pays special attention to higher medical education through three faculties (Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy), residency programs and two doctoral schools. The Majorcan university community will always keep his memory alive with respect and gratitude. the quality of scientific authority and mentor, the Professor’s contribution to the development of some institutions and their management, the humanistic dimension of his personality, the structural desire to help people, to do good to others, the ability to give and dedicate to the good of others. the deepest human and Christian spirit. The commemoration and homage session of Professor Vasile Cândea ended with a memorial service officiated by His Eminence Theodosius .
Finally, President Adrian Badea said: “We organized this event as a gesture of conscience and moral duty, as a sign of gratitude and love for our Great Professor and Founder, General Vasile Cândea, who today would have turned 90 years old. He was an illustrious figure in the medical field, higher education and scientific research, a visionary and a pioneer, an emblematic name of Romanian science, which honored the country. The rebirth of the Academy of Romanian Scientists is largely due to his reign, which was a guarantor in the academic environment of the quality and seriousness of the institution, also founded in 1935 by a great doctor of the country, professor and minister Constantin Angelescu. Professor Vasile Cândea remains a figure of the Romanian scientific pantheon, a first name in the medical sciences, a founder and builder, a symbol of value, conscience, responsibility and dedication, a model and a landmark for present and future generations. “
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