The bust of Spiru C. Haret

THE BUST OF SPIRU C. HARET Spiru C. Haret was born on 15th February 1851 in Iași and died on 17th December 1912 in Bucharest. He was a Romanian mathematician, astronomer and teacher of Armenian origin, famous for organizing modern Romanian education from the position of Minister of Education, which he held three times. Spiru C. Haret taught at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Sciences, Physics and Mathematics Department, rational mechanics, from 1878 to 1910. At the School of Bridges and Roads he was a professor in the preparatory year, teaching trigonometry, analytical geometry, elementary plane and spatial geometry and descriptive geometry, until 1885. Haret also taught rational mechanics at the School of Artillery and Engineer Officers from 1881 (when the Artillery and Engineer Section was founded) until 1890. He was a full member of the Romanian Academy. In 1910 he published in Paris and Bucharest his work „Social Mechanics”, in which he tried to explain and to make social phenomena comprehensible by using mathematics. As a school inspector and politician, Spiru C. Haret began in 1879 a comprehensive education reform and he is considered the greatest reformer of Romanian schools in the 19th century. His bust, placed in 1939 in front of „Spiru C. Haret” High School, is made of bronze by sculptor Emil Negulescu.