Horia Hulubei

Born in Iași, he graduated in 1915 first in his class at the Boarding High School of Iași.{{cite journal|last=Frangopol|first=Petre T.|title=Horia Hulubei|journal=Revista de Politica Științei și Scientometrie|series=Serie Nouă|volume=1|issue=3| year=2012|pages=178–183|language=ro| url=https://rpss.inoe.ro/articles/26/file/|access-date=January 16, 2021}} He then enrolled in the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Iași, but his studies were interrupted by the entry of Romania in World War I; conscripted into the army, he fought as a second lieutenant at the battles of Nămoloasa, Băltăreți, and Mărășești in the summer of 1917.{{cite web|url=https://www.libertatea.ro/stiri/horia-hulubei-parintele-fizicii-nucleare-romanesti-a-luptat-la-marasesti-2193979|title=Tumultuoasa viață a lui Horia Hulubei, părintele fizicii nucleare românești. A fost pilot de vânătoare, spion, arestat de comuniști, apoi numit director de institut|newspaper=Libertatea|first=Sorin|last=Golea| language=ro|date=March 27, 2018|access-date=January 16, 2021}} General Henri Mathias Berthelot, the head of the French military mission to Romania, decided to send a group of young Romanians (including Hulubei) to France to train at an aviation school; upon completing the training, Hulubei participated as a pilot on a fighter aircraft of the French Air Service on the Western Front. Gravely wounded, he was awarded the Legion of Honour.

Upon returning to Romania, he worked for a while in civil aviation, and helped start the first Romanian air service, connecting Istanbul to Bucharest to Budapest. In 1922 he returned to his studies in physics and chemistry, completing in 1926 his undergraduate degree at the University of Iași, magna cum laude. He then went to Paris for his graduate studies, obtaining his Ph.D. from Paris-Sorbonne University, where his advisor was the Nobel laureate Jean Perrin.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1023/A:1008657521233 | year = 1998 | title = Romanian University Physics Teaching and Research (1860–1940) | last1 = Constantinescu|first1= Bogdan | journal = Science & Education | volume = 7 | issue = 3 | pages = 307 | last2 = Bugoi | first2 = Roxana|bibcode = 1998Sc&Ed...7..307C | s2cid = 116947746 }} His Ph.D. thesis with the title "Contribution to the study of quantum diffusion of X-rays" was defended in 1933 in Paris in front of an examination committee chaired by Nobel laureate Marie Curie.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wv4lVJYySiwC|first1=Agata|last1= Olariu|first2= Kristina|last2= Stenström|first3= Ragnar|last3= Hellborg|title=Proceedings of the International Conference on Applications of High Precision Atomic & Nuclear Methods: Neptun, Romania: 2-6 September 2002|date=2005|publisher=Editura Academiei Române|isbn=973-27-1181-7|location=București|oclc=895138284|page=ix}} Afterwards he continued his research at the University of Paris, staying in contact with the likes of Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Paul Langevin, and Albert Einstein.{{cite web|url=https://www.phys.uaic.ro/index.php/prezentare/personalitati-facultate/horia-hulubei-1896-1972/|title=Horia Hulubei (1896–1972)|website=www.phys.uaic.ro|publisher=Faculty of Physics, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași|access-date=January 16, 2021}}

File:Horia Hulubei1.jpg

Between 1927 and 1938, he worked alternately in Paris and at the University of Iași, where he established the first laboratory of the structure of matter in Romania. With the help of his advanced X-ray spectroscopy equipment he observed several previously unidentified X-ray spectral lines, and subsequently came to the decision that such lines are associated with new elements. In 1936, Hulubei together with Yvette Cauchois claimed to have discovered element 85 via X-ray analysis, conducting further research and publishing on follow-up studies in 1939.{{cite journal|

last1=Hulubei|first1=Horia|last2=Yvette|first2=Cauchois|author2-link=Yvette Cauchois|title=Spectres de l'émission propre ondulatorie du radon et de ses dérivés. Raies attribuables a l'élément 85|journal= Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences| volume=209|year=1939| pages=39–42|language=fr}} With Cauchois and Sonia Cotelle, he established the presence of polonium and neptunium.{{cite book|last1=Nina|first1=Byers|last2=Williams|first2=Gary|title=Out of the shadows: contributions of twentieth-century women to physics|date=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521821971|edition=Reprinted|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CQeKFG01s-oC|access-date=January 16, 2021|chapter=Chapter 20: Yvette Cauchois (1908–1999)|pages=224–225}} Hulubei also claimed and published the discovery of a new element, "moldavium", in 1936, the discovery of "sequanium" in 1939, and that of "dor" in 1945. Later, however, it was shown that the reported X-ray lines did not belong to new elements.{{cite conference| first = Marco| last = Fontani|author-link= Marco Fontani |title = The Twilight of the Naturally-Occurring Elements: Moldavium (Ml), Sequanium (Sq) and Dor (Do)| book-title = International Conference on the History of Chemistry| pages = 1–8| date = 10 September 2005| location = Lisbon| url = http://5ichc-portugal.ulusofona.pt/uploads/PaperLong-MarcoFontani.doc| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060224090117/http://5ichc-portugal.ulusofona.pt/uploads/PaperLong-MarcoFontani.doc| archive-date=24 February 2006| access-date = 8 April 2007 }} Hulubei's samples for "dor" did contain the real element 85 (astatine), but his means to detect it were too weak, by current standards, to enable correct identification; moreover, he could not perform chemical tests on the element.{{cite journal|title= Finding Eka-Iodine: Discovery Priority in Modern Times|first1=S. C.|last1= Burdette|first2= B. F.|last2= Thornton|journal=Bulletin for the History of Chemistry |year=2010 |volume=35 |pages=86–96|url=http://www.scs.illinois.edu/~mainzv/HIST/bulletin_open_access/v35-2/v35-2%20p86-96.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.scs.illinois.edu/~mainzv/HIST/bulletin_open_access/v35-2/v35-2%20p86-96.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}

For his many scientific achievements the {{ill|Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering|lt=National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering|ro|Institutul Național de Cercetare-Dezvoltare pentru Fizică și Inginerie Nucleară „Horia Hulubei”}} in Romania (NIPNE/IFIN-HH) was named after him.{{cite web|url=http://www.nipne.ro/index.php|title=Horia Hulubei National Institute for R&D in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH)|website=www.nipne.ro|access-date=January 16, 2021}} He was the Founder and First Director of the {{ill|Institute of Atomic Physics|ro|Institutul de Fizică Atomică}} (IFA) in Măgurele in 1949.{{cite web|url=http://www.ifa-mg.ro/despre_en.php|title=IFA Between Legend and Hope|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100501083928/http://www.ifa-mg.ro/despre_en.php|access-date=January 16, 2021|archive-date=1 May 2010}}

Elected corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1937,{{cite web|url=http://www.aosr.ro/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/membri-ASR-site.pdf|title=Academia de Științe din Romania| website=www.aosr.ro| language=ro|access-date=January 16, 2021}} Hulubei became a titular member in 1946.{{cite web|url=http://www.acad.ro/bdar/armembriLit.php?vidT=H |title=Membrii Academiei Române din 1866 până în prezent|publisher=Romanian Academy|language=ro|website=www.acad.ro}} Stripped of membership by the new communist regime in 1948, he was restored to the Academy in 1955.{{citation|first=Dan|last=Berindei|author-link=Dan Berindei|title=Academia Română și revoluția din decembrie 1989|language=ro|journal=Memoriile Secției de Științe Istorice| volume=33|year=2008|page=157}} Hulubei was also corresponding member (from 1935) and titular member (from 1941) of the Romanian Academy of Sciences, and served as Vice-President of the organization in 1947–48.

During the early 1960s and 1970s Hulubei was a Professor of Atomic Physics in the Department of Atomic and Nuclear Physics of the Faculty of Physics at the University of Bucharest, where he delivered elegant and clear lectures on the Compton effect and inelastic Compton scattering/resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS).

• {{Cite journal |last=Hulubei |first=Horia |year=1937 |title=Spectres L d'emission et d'absorption du radium (88). Niveaux caractéristiques |url=https://hal.science/jpa-00233506 |journal=Journal de Physique et le Radium |language=fr |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=260–266|doi=10.1051/jphysrad:0193700806026000}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Hulubei |first=Horia |date=29 May 1947 |title=État actuel des informations sur les isotopes de numéro atomique 85 |url=https://jcp.edpsciences.org/articles/jcp/abs/1947/01/jcp194744p225/jcp194744p225.html |journal=Journal de Chimie Physique |language=fr |volume=44 |pages=225–229 |doi=10.1051/jcp/1947440225 |bibcode=1947JCP....44..225H |issn=0021-7689|url-access=subscription }}
• {{Cite journal |last=Hulubei |first=Horia |date=May 1947 |title=Search for element 87 |url=https://journals.aps.org/pr/pdf/10.1103/PhysRev.71.740 |journal=Physical Review|language=en |volume=71 |issue=10 |pages=740–741|doi=10.1103/PhysRev.71.740 |bibcode=1947PhRv...71..740H |url-access=subscription }}
• Course Notes of Physical Chemistry, Editura Academiei, Bucharest, 1940. ( "Curs de chimie fizică "(1940))
• X-ray Spectroscopy ("Spectroscopia X"). (1948)
• The Structure of Matter. "Structura materiei" (1950)

{{Commons category|Horia Hulubei}}

• [http://www.nipne.ro/history.php Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering - IFIN HH]
• [http://www.loc.gov/search/?in=&q=horia+hulubei&new=true Library of Congress]

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Category:1896 births

Category:1972 deaths

Category:Alexandru Ioan Cuza University alumni

Category:University of Paris alumni

Category:Romanian nuclear physicists

Category:Rectors of the University of Bucharest

Category:Titular members of the Romanian Academy

Category:Members of the Romanian Academy of Sciences

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society

Category:Academic staff of the University of Bucharest

Category:Romanian military personnel of World War I

Category:Romanian World War I pilots

Category:Recipients of the Legion of Honour

Category:Academic staff of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University