Exhibition on Radu Balescu’s life
An exhibition on Radu Balescu’s life (1932-2006) was held from 6-20 May 2014 at the Library of Human Sciences of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. Radu Balescu was the first laureate of the EPS Hannés Alfven Prize for his outstanding scientific work in the field of statistical physics of charged particles and of controlled fusion. This exhibition was first shown at the Library of the Academy of Sciences of Romania in September 2012.
Radu Balescu was born in 1932 in Bucharest, Romania, of a Belgian mother, and acquired Belgian nationality in 1959. He studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and was the assistant of Professor I. Prigogine (Nobel laureate in 1977) from 1957 until 1961.
Until becoming Emeritus in 1997, he held the position of Ordinary Professor at the University of Brussels. He lectured and was a visiting professor throughout Europe, in Japan, the USA and Mexico.
Professor Balescu’s work amply demonstrates the breadth and the depth of his contributions, not only to theoretical basic plasma and fusion physics, but also to statistical physics in general. It encompasses the conceptual roots of the disciplines and addresses the most challenging present-day problems. Inspired by the work of his predecessors (Dirac, Boltzmann or Landau), he described complex plasma-related states in an elegant way.
More information on the exhibition is available on the Library of the Academy of Sciences of Romania website.
