Obituary of Ioan Gottlieb (1929-2011)

Ioan Gottlieb, professor emeritus and researcher in theoretical physics at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, has passed away in Iași, Romania, on September 2, 2011. He had been active in physics and the university administration for six decades.

Ioan Gottlieb

Professor Ioan Gottlieb was born on January 21, 1929, in Baia-Mare, Romania. During World War II he was a detainee at the infamous concentration camps Mauthausen, Melk, and Auschwitz. He was liberated at the end of the war (1945) and returned to his home country.

Upon graduating in 1951 from the faculty of mathematics and physics, department of mathematics, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj, he did research work in theoretical physics. It was in that field that he developed his doctoral dissertation at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi in 1962, under the supervision of Teofil T. Vescan. He married Cleopatra Mociuțchi, also a university professor in the faculty of physics of Iași, and she became his lifelong partner and professional collaborator.

Professor Gottlieb began his teaching career while still a student at the University of Cluj (1949-1951). He then settled in Iasi and in 1953 started teaching at the Aexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași. He moved up the hierarchy, from assistant to lecturer, associated professor, and then professor (1972).

He was an initiator and leader of the Iasi modern and contemporary school of theoretical physics, head of the department between 1964 and 1971 and between 1990 and1999, and doctoral degree supervisor since 1971. Professor Gottlieb was always close to his colleagues, scientific collaborators, and students, proving exceptional didactic skills and great character. Many of his disciples became experts in highly advanced fields of science and world-renowned researchers in their disciplines. Professor Gottlieb mentored 21 PhD students in physics, some of whom became PhD supervisors themselves, some academic leaders, and some top researchers. Throughout his 60-year academic career, Professor Gottlieb taught in important branches of modern physics: quantum mechanics, electrodynamics and theory of relativity, thermodynamics, statistical physics, quantum theory of fields, astronomy, mathematical methods for theoretical physics, and philosophical issues in physics.

His scientific work is particularly vast. In Romania and abroad, he published 18 books and more than 150 scientific papers in fields such as gravitation and the general theory of relativity, differential geometry, quantum physics, and the history and philosophy of science. His ongoing preoccupation in understanding nature, from its universal constituents to cosmic-scale issues, made him employ methods and abstract formalisms, helping evolve branches in theoretical physics lying at the frontier between the general theory of relativity and the physics of elementary particles.

A true European man of culture, Professor Gottlieb was a member of several academies and scientific societies: the European Academy for Sciences and Arts, the American Mathematical Society, the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation, the Committee on Space Research, the Society of Mathematics and Physics, the Society of Physics and Chemistry, the Janos Bolyai Mathematical Society of Hungary, and the Romanian Society of Physics. He was a founding member of the Romanian Society of General Relativity and Gravitation and was its first president. As an acknowledgment of his distinguished scientific and academic merits, he was granted the title of professor emeritus by the University Alexandru Ioan Cuza of Iași in 2004.

He will always be missed, with his lasting optimistic smile and his wise and experienced advice. He will be in the hearts of the all those who had known him, as a living example of a dedicated researcher, deeply committed educator, a true friend, and a wonderful person!

Prof. Dr. Mihai Anastasiei

Faculty of Mathematics

University Alexandru Ioan Cuza Iași

Romania