Ion I. Agârbiceanu
Ion I. Agârbiceanu was a Romanian physicist born in Bucium, Alba County in Transylvania. He was the son of the popular writer and devout Catholic Ion Agârbiceanu and his wife Maria.
Agârbiceanu invented the gas laser in 1962, the first major improvement on laser technology since it was overall discovered by Theodore Maiman. Agârbiceanu's laser used a mixture of helium and neon to function. This laser was invented during Agârbiceanu's long tenure as head of the Physics Lab 1 at the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, which lasted from 1955 to 1971. He was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1963.
Agârbiceanu died in March 1971, a scant few months after he stopped working for the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest.
