The bust of academician Grigore C. Moisil

THE BUST OF ACADEMICIAN GRIGORE C. MOISIL The mathematician Grigore Constantin Moisil was born on 10th January 1906 in Tulcea and died on 21st May 1973 in Ottawa, Canada. He is considered the father of Romanian computer science. He studied at Polytechnic University and Faculty of Mathematics, where his teachers were Dimitrie Pompeiu (his mentor), Gheorghe Țițeica, Traian Lalescu, Anton Davidoglu. In 1929 he defended his doctoral thesis „Analytical Mechanics of Continuous Systems”. In 1931 he studied and took the teaching exam at the Sorbonne University in Paris and was appointed lecturer at the Faculty of Mathematics of Iasi, where he taught a course in modern algebra for 10 years. In 1932 he had a Rockefeller Scholarship in Rome. He published works in the fields of mechanics, mathematical analysis, geometry, algebra and mathematical logic. He developed new methods of analysis and synthesis of finite automata and made valuable contributions to the algebraic theory of automata. He contributed to the creation of the first Romanian computers, to the development of computer science and to the training of the first generations of computer scientists. In 1946 he was appointed Romanian Ambassador to Ankara. He was laureate of State Prize of the People’s Republic of Romania and in 1964 he received the title „Emeritus Scientist”. He was a member of the Romanian Academy, the Academy of Bologna and the International Institute of Philosophy. In 1996 he received, posthumously, the „Computer Pioneer Award” of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, an international non-profit professional association of great renown that supports the development of electricity-based technologies, headquartered in Piscataway, New Jersey, USA). His statue, made of patinated plaster, by artist Emil Pricopescu of Buzău, was placed in 2004 in the courtyard of the school that bears his name, the former „Contactoare” High School No. 3 of Buzău.