Conf. Dr. biologist Maria S. Celan (1898-1989) is the most important Romanian marine algologist.
She was noticed from her youth by Dr. Grigore Antipa and recommended by Prof. Ioan Borcea for employment at the Marine Biological Station at Agigea, which today bears the name of the Romanian zoologist.
Maria S. Celan continued her training at the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and the Marine Research Stations of Villefranche/Mer, Dinard and Roscoff.
He devoted himself to marine algology with a brilliant doctorate conferred by the famous Parisian Sorbonne University (1940/1941), a thesis that was praised by France’s leading professors in the field.
In her research on morphology, cytology and ecology of green, brown and red benthic macrophytes from the Romanian coast, Maria S. Celan determined 157 species, most of them new to the Black Sea, but she also identified a species new to science, Gelidiella antipaewhich she dedicated to her master, Grigore Antipa.
Through her prodigious professional activity, her upright character and her whole life of sacrifice dedicated to science, Maria S. Celan belongs to the history of Romanian and universal science.
Thus, Maria Celan remains an admirable human role model for current and future generations dedicated to scientific research.
