Horia Hulubei


Horia Hulubei was a Romanian nuclear physicist, known for his contributions to the development of X-ray spectroscopy.

Education

He studied at the University of Iaşi, and then obtained his Ph.D. from the Paris-Sorbonne University, where his advisor was the Nobel laureate Jean Perrin. 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 Lauren

Scientific achievements

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. Then, he 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.
For his many scientific achievements the National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering in Romania was named after him -- . He was the Founder and First Director of the in Bucharest, Romania. He became a titular member of the Romanian Academy in 1946; stripped of membership by the new communist regime in 1948, he was restored to the Academy in 1955.

University teaching

During the early 1960s and 1970s he was also a Professor of Atomic Physics in the Department of Atomic and Nuclear Physics of the 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.

Publications