Ion Barbu
Encyclopedia
Ion Barbu was a distinguished Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

 and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

.

He was born in Câmpulung-Muscel, Argeş County
Arges County
Argeș is a county of Romania, in Wallachia, with the capital city at Pitești.-Demographics:In 2002, it had a population of 652,625 and the population density was 95/km².*Romanians – 96%*Roma , and other.-Geography:...

, the son of Constantin Barbilian and Smaranda, born Şoiculescu. He attended Ion Brătianu High School in Piteşti
Pitesti
Pitești is a city in Romania, located on the Argeș River. The capital and largest city of Argeș County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Pitești is situated on the A1 freeway connecting it directly to the national capital Bucharest,...

 and Gheorghe Lazăr High School in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

. During that time, he discovered his mathematics talents, and started publishing in Gazeta Matematică, one of the most prestigious math publications of that time; it was also then that he discovered his passion for poetry. Between 1914 and 1921 Barbu studied mathematics at the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...

, obtaining his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in 1929.

Ion Barbu was known as "one of the greatest Romanian poets of the twentieth century and perhaps the greatest of all" according to Romanian literary critic Alexandru Ciorănescu. As a poet, he is best known for his volume Second Game (Romanian title Joc secund).

In 1942, Barbilian was named professor at the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...

 (with some help from fellow mathematician Grigore Moisil
Grigore Moisil
Grigore Constantin Moisil was a Romanian mathematician, computer pioneer, and member of the Romanian Academy. His research was mainly in the fields of mathematical logic, , Algebraic logic, MV-algebra, algebra and differential equations...

). As a mathematician, Barbilian authored 80 research papers and studies. His most important contributions are two papers that appeared in Časopis Mathematiky a Fysiky. The so-called Barbilian spaces in geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....

 were named after him.

He died at Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

 in 1961 and is buried at Bellu
Bellu
Bellu is the most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.It is located on a plot of land donated to the local administration by Baron Barbu Bellu...

 cemetery.

Sources

  • Short biography on ICI website
  • Alexandru Ciorănescu, Ion Barbu, Twayne Publishers, Boston, 1981 ISBN 0805764321. Translated in Romanian, Editura Fundaţiei Culturale Române, Bucharest, 1996. ISBN 9735770423
  • Wladimir G. Boskoff, Bogdan Suceavă, Barbilian spaces: the history of a geometric idea, Historia Mathematica
    Historia Mathematica
    Historia Mathematica: International Journal of History of Mathematics is an academic journal on the history of mathematics published by Elsevier. It was established by Kenneth O. May in 1971 as the free newsletter Notae de Historia Mathematica, but by its sixth issue in 1974 had turned into a full...

    34 (2007), no. 2, 221–224.
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