Prima donna assoluta Virginia Zeani

Virginia Zeani (born 21 October 1925) is a Romanian soprano, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, especially the role of (Violetta) in La traviata.

Zeani was born Virginia Zehan, in Solovăstru, Romania. She studied first in Bucarest, with Lucia Anghel, then with famed coloratura soprano Lydia Lipkowska. Her singing for the Italian Cultural Society in Bucarest so impressed the Italian Ambassador, the Consul and the Press Attaché that they quickly arranged for her to study in Italy, and in March 1947 she travelled to Milan to work with the great tenor Aureliano Pertile.

With no previous stage experience, in May 1948 she made her professional debut in Bologna, deputising at short notice for Margherita Carosio as Violetta in La traviata, and was immediately offered a tour of thirty more performances. Violetta was a role she would sing an estimated 648 times around the world, during her career. Her partner that evening was tenor Arrigo Pola (Alfredo), the voice teacher of Luciano Pavarotti.

Her career was at first primarily focused in Italy, where she sang in many of the regional opera houses. She describes these years as "making the bones", singing many performances of big roles in smaller houses to gain strength and experience.

In January 1950 she was invited to star in a three month "tournee", or season, in Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt, singing Violetta, Nedda, Michaela and most significantly Adina in L'elisir d'amore opposite the great Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli. She was 24, he was 60.

In 1952 came an important step when, again at short notice, conductor Tullio Serafin chose her to replace Maria Callas as Elvira in i Puritani in the Teatro Communale in Florence. Soon her growing reputation led to invitations to many of the major opera houses of Europe, and Violetta was her debut role in Vienna, and Paris. She made her debut at La Scala, Milan in 1956, as (Cleopatra) in Handel's Giulio Cesare, opposite Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, whom she married shortly afterwards.

Despite having appeared in several successful tours of Great Britain she had yet to appear at Covent Garden. Her debut eventually came in 1960, once again as an emergency replacement, but this time for the indisposed Joan Sutherland. She recalls arriving at the Royal Opera House at 4pm, after a sleepless night and flights from Vienna via Frankfurt. There was just time for costume fittings and a brief rest before she walked, for the very first time, onto the Covent Garden stage. She had never before met any of the cast and had to ask "Which one is my Alfredo?" That remarkable performance was broadcast world-wide and has been preserved on disc. Zeani also appeared in Barcelona, Leningrad, Moscow, Philadelphia, Bucharest etc. and eventually in New York's Metropolitan Opera, as Violetta, in 1966.

In her early career she won considerable success in bel canto roles such as Lucia di Lammermoor, (Gilda) in Rigoletto, (Elvira) in I Puritani, and the title role in Linda di Chamounix, and lighter lyric roles such as Massenet's ("Manon") and (Marguerite) in Gounod's Faust. As her voice matured she gradually turned to more dramatic roles including Puccini's Manon Lescaut, Madama Butterfly and Tosca, and verismo operas including Fedora and Adriana Lecouvreur. She tackled more Verdi roles including (Aida), (Desdemona), (Elisabetta), (Alzira) and (Lina) in Stiffelio, as well as two Wagnerian heroines, (Elsa) in Lohengrin and (Senta) in The Flying Dutchman.

She created the role of (Blanche) in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites in 1957 at La Scala, later performing his solo masterpiece for soprano La Voix Humaine.

In 1972 she enjoyed one of her greatest successes as Magda in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul.

In all she sang some 69 major roles and only ever cancelled two performances.

She sang with many famous colleagues including tenors Beniamino Gigli, Mario Filippeschi, Ferruccio Tagliavini, Carlo Bergonzi, Nicolai Gedda, Alfredo Kraus, Jon Vickers, Luciano Pavarotti, and Plácido Domingo, mezzo sopranos Giulietta Simionato, Fedora Barbieri, Shirley Verrett, Lili Chookasian, Grace Bumbry, baritones Gino Bechi, Tito Gobbi. Nicolae Herlea and basses Nicola Rossi-Lemeni, Boris Christoff, etc. A warm-voiced singer with stunning looks and an affecting stage presence, she made few commercial recordings, but many of her live performances exist as bootleg recordings and YouTube postings.

Zeani retired from the operatic stage in 1982, but, together with her husband, Nicola Rossi Lemeni, in 1980 began to teach singing at the music school in Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. The couple were later both honored as "Distinguished Professors". After her husband's death in 1991 she taught at IU for many more years before moving to Florida where she continues to teach talented young singers, In 2010, having now taught for thirty years, the magazine Classical Singer named her Teacher of the Year.

Amongst Zeani's most famous pupils are Sylvia McNair, Susan Patterson, Angela Brown, Stephen Mark Brown, Elizabeth Futral, Marilyn Mims, Vivica Genaux, Mark Nicolson, Heidi Klassen, James Valenti Elīna Garanča and Ailyn Perez.

She was the recipient of many major awards including Commendatore of the Italian Republic. In 2010, King Michael of Romania awarded her his highest honour, "Nihil sine Deo", and in May 2011 she travelled to the Elisabeta Palace in Bucharest where he invested her with the award.

President Joachim Gauck

Joachim Gauck (born 24 January 1940) is the current President of Germany (since 18 March 2012). A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in East Germany.

During the Peaceful Revolution, he was a co-founder of the New Forum opposition movement in East Germany, which contributed to the downfall of the Soviet-backed dictatorship of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). In 1990 he served as a member of the only freely elected People's Chamber for the Alliance 90. Following German reunification, he was elected by the Bundestag as the first Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives, serving from 1990 to 2000. As Federal Commissioner, he earned recognition as a "Stasi hunter" and "tireless pro-democracy advocate," exposing the crimes of the former communist secret police.

He was nominated as the candidate of the SPD and the Greens for President of Germany in the 2010 election, but narrowly lost to Christian Wulff, the candidate of the government coalition. His candidacy was met by significant approval of the population and the media; Der Spiegel described him as "the better President" and the Bild called him "the president of hearts." After Christian Wulff had stepped down, Gauck was elected President with 991 of 1228 votes in the Federal Convention in the 2012 election, as a nonpartisan consensus candidate of the CDU, the CSU, the FDP, the SPD and the Greens.

A son of a survivor of a Soviet Gulag, Gauck's political life was formed by his own family's experiences with totalitarianism. Gauck was a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, together with Václav Havel and other statesmen, and the Declaration on Crimes of Communism. He has called for increased awareness of communist crimes in Europe, and for the necessity of delegitimizing the communist era. He is the author and co-author of several books, including The Black Book of Communism. His 2012 book Freedom. A Plea calls for the defense of freedom and human rights around the globe. He has been described by Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "true teacher of democracy" and a "tireless advocate of freedom, democracy, and justice." The Wall Street Journal has described him as "the last of a breed: the leaders of protest movements behind the Iron Curtain who went on to lead their countries after 1989." He has received numerous honours, including the 1997 Hannah Arendt Prize.

Joachim Gauck was born into a family of sailors in Rostock, the son of Joachim Gauck, Sr. (born 1907), and Olga Gauck (née Warremann, born 1910). His father was an experienced ship's captain and distinguished naval officer (Captain at Sea), who after World War II worked as an inspector at the Neptun Werft shipbuilding company. Following the Soviet occupation at the end of World War II, the communists were installed into power in what became the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The family was a victim of Soviet persecution. When Joachim Gauck was eleven years old, in 1951, his father was arrested by Soviet occupation forces; he was not to return. He was convicted by a Russian military tribunal of espionage for receiving a letter from the West and also of anti-Soviet demagogy for being in the possession of a western journal on naval affairs, and deported to a Gulag in Siberia, where he was mistreated to the extent that he was considered physically disabled after one year, according to his son. For nearly three years, the family knew nothing about what had happened to him and whether he was still alive. He was freed in 1955, following the state visit of Konrad Adenauer to Moscow. Adenauer negotiated the release of thousands of German prisoners of war and civilians who had been deported.

He graduated with an Abitur from Innerstädtisches Gymnasium in Rostock. According to Joachim Gauck, his political activities were inspired by the ordeal of his father, and he stated that he grew up with a "well-founded anti-communism". Already in school in East Germany, he made no secret of his anti-communist position, and he steadfastly refused to join the communist youth movement, the Free German Youth. He wanted to study German and become a journalist, but because he wasn't a communist, he wasn't allowed to do so. Instead he chose to study theology and become a pastor in the Protestant church in Mecklenburg. He has stated that his primary intention was not to become a pastor, but the theology studies offered an opportunity to study philosophy and the church was one of the few institutions in East Germany where communist ideology was not dominant. Nevertheless, he did eventually become a pastor. His work as a pastor in East Germany was very difficult due to the hostility of the communist regime towards the church, and for many years he was under constant observation and was harassed by the Stasi (the secret police).

The Stasi described Gauck in their file on him as an "incorrigible anti-communist" ("unverbesserlicher Antikommunist"). He has said that "at the age of nine, I knew socialism was an unjust system."

In his memoirs, he writes: "The fate of our father was like an educational cudgel. It led to a sense of unconditional loyalty towards the family which excluded any sort of idea of fraternisation with the system."

During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, he became a member of the New Forum, a democratic opposition movement, and was elected as its spokesman. He also took part in major demonstrations against the communist regime of GDR. In the free elections on 18 March 1990, he was elected to the People's Chamber of the GDR, representing the Alliance 90 (that consisted of the New Forum, Democracy Now and the Initiative for Peace and Human Rights), where he served until the dissolution of the GDR in October 1990.

On 2 October 1990, the day before the dissolution of the GDR, the People's Chamber elected him Special Representative for the Stasi Archives. After the dissolution of the GDR the following day, he was appointed Special Representative of the Federal Government for the Stasi Archives by President Richard von Weizsäcker and Chancellor Helmut Kohl. As such, he was in charge of the archives of the Stasi and tasked with investigating communist crimes. In 1992, his office became known as the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives. He served in this position until 2000, when he was succeeded by Marianne Birthler.

Gauck served as a member of the Bundestag, the Parliament of Germany, from 3 to 4 October 1990 (the 1990 People's Chamber was granted the right to nominate a certain number of MPs as part of the reunification process). He stepped down following his appointment as Special Representative of the Federal Government. As such, he was the shortest serving Member of Parliament of Germany ever.

He refused the position of President of the Federal Agency for Civic Education as well as offers to be nominated as a candidate for parliament by the SPD. Voices inside the CSU proposed him as a possible conservative presidential candidate (against SPD career politician Johannes Rau) in 1999, and his name was also mentioned as a possible candidate for CDU/CSU and Free Democratic Party in subsequent years. For instance the Saxon FDP state party proposed him as a liberal-conservative candidate in 2004, before the leaders of the parties agreed on Horst Köhler.

Since 2003, he has been chairman of the association Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie ("Against Forgetting – For Democracy"), and he served on the Management Board of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia 2001–2004.

He has written on Soviet-era concentration camps such as the NKVD Special Camp No. 1, the crimes of communism, and political oppression in East Germany, and contributed to the German edition of The Black Book of Communism.

In 2007, Joachim Gauck was invited to deliver the main speech during a commemoration ceremony at the Landtag of Saxony in memory of the Reunification of Germany and the fall of the communist government. All parties participated, except The Left (the successor of the communist Socialist Unity Party (SED)), whose members walked out in protest against Gauck delivering the speech. Gauck supports the observation of Die Linke by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the corresponding state authorities. Gauck has lauded the SPD for distancing itself from Die Linke, stating that Kurt "Schumacher was an avowed opponent of any totalitarian rule."

Joachim Gauck is a founding signatory of both the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism (2008) and the Declaration on Crimes of Communism (2010), both calling for the condemnation of communism, education about communist crimes and punishment of communist criminals. The Prague Declaration proposed the establishment of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, that was subsequently designated by the European Parliament. In 2010, Gauck criticized the political left of ignoring communist crimes.

Gauck is a supporter of the idea to etablish a Centre Against Expulsions in Berlin.

On the occasion of his 70th birthday in 2010, Gauck was praised by Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "true teacher of democracy" and a "tireless advocate of freedom, democracy and justice".

The Independent has described Joachim Gauck as "Germany's answer to Nelson Mandela". The Wall Street Journal has described him as "the last of a breed: the leaders of protest movements behind the Iron Curtain who went on to lead their countries after 1989," comparing him to Lech Wałęsa and Václav Havel. Corriere della Sera has referred to him as the "German Havel."

Gauck is a member of Atlantik-Brücke, an organisation promoting German-American friendship. Gauck supported the economic reforms initiated by the red-green government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. He also supported the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, to end Yugoslav atrocities in Kosovo. He also supports the German military presence in Afghanistan. Gauck is a proponent of market economy, and is sceptical towards the occupy movement. In 2010, he said SPD politician Thilo Sarrazin had "demonstrated courage" in opening a debate on immigration. However, he criticized several of Sarrazin's views.

In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in 2007, Gauck said that "we have to delegitimatize [the communist era] not only because of the many victims and criminal acts, but [also because] modern politics in the entire Soviet empire was basically taken backward." According to The Wall Street Journal, he "has dedicated his life to showing that the Soviet system's evils were no less than the Third Reich's." In his 2012 book Freedom. A Plea, he outlines his thoughts on freedom, democracy, human rights and tolerance.

In 2012, Gauck said that "Muslims who are living here are a part of Germany", but refused to say whether Islam was a part of Germany, as asserted by previous president Christian Wulff. The Central Council of Muslims in Germany welcomed the remarks.

On 3 June 2010, Joachim Gauck was nominated for President of Germany in the 2010 election by the SPD and the Greens. Gauck is not a member of either the SPD or the Greens (although his former party in East Germany eventually merged with the Greens after reunification) and has stated that he would have accepted a nomination by the CDU as well. Gauck once described himself as a "leftist, liberal conservative" and after his nomination, stated: "I'm neither red nor green, I'm Joachim Gauck". The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described him as a liberal conservative.

Gauck is widely respected across the political spectrum and is very popular also among CDU/CSU and FDP politicians due to his record as an upstanding, moral person during the communist dictatorship as well as his record as a "Stasi hunter" in the 1990s. His main contender, Christian Wulff, and politicians of all the government parties, stated that they greatly respected Gauck and his life and work. Jörg Schönbohm, former Chairman of the CDU of Brandenburg, also supported Gauck.

The only party that in principle rejected Gauck as a possible president was the legal successor of the East German communist party, Die Linke, which interpreted the nomination of the SPD and Greens as a refusal to cooperate with Die Linke. CSU politician Philipp Freiherr von Brandenstein argued that the election of Joachim Gauck would prevent any cooperation between SPD/Greens and the party Die Linke for years to come: "Gauck has likely made it perfectly clear to Gabriel that he will never appoint any of the apologists of the communist tyranny as government members". Die Linke nominated their own candidate, former journalist Luc Jochimsen and chose to abstain in the third ballot. Die Linke's refusal to support Gauck drew strong criticism from the SPD and Greens. Sigmar Gabriel, the SPD chairman, described Die Linke's position as "bizarre and embarrassing," stating that he was "shocked" that the party would declare Joachim Gauck their main enemy due to his investigation of communist injustice. According to Gabriel, Die Linke had manifested itself once again as the successor of the East German communist party. A politician of Die Linke compared the choice between Gauck and Wulff to the choice between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, drawing strong condemnation from the SPD and Greens.

In the election on 30 June 2010, Gauck was defeated by Christian Wulff in the third ballot, with a margin of 624 to 490.

Gauck was originally proposed as a presidential candidate for the Greens by Andreas Schulze, then communications adviser to the Greens in the Bundestag. Schulze was appointed as Gauck's spokesman in 2010, and again in 2012.

Following the resignation of President Christian Wulff on 17 February 2012, Joachim Gauck was nominated on 19 February as the joint candidate for President of Germany by the government parties CDU, CSU and FDP, and the opposition SPD and the Alliance '90/The Greens. This happened after the FDP, the SPD and the Greens, which together alone controlled a majority in the electoral body, had strongly supported Gauck and urged the conservatives to support him. The SPD chairman, Sigmar Gabriel, said Gauck was his party's preferred candidate already on 17 February, citing Gauck's "great confidence among the citizens." Reportedly, Chancellor Merkel gave in to FDP chairman (and Vice-Chancellor) Philipp Rösler's staunch support for Gauck; the agreement was announced after the FDP presidium had unanimously voted for Gauck earlier on 19 February. He was thus supported by all major parties represented in the Federal Convention, except Die Linke, the successor party to the former East German communist party.

According to a poll conducted for Stern, the nomination of Gauck was met with high approval. The majority of the voters of all political parties represented in the Bundestag approved of his nomination, with the Green voters being most enthusiastic (84% approval) and Die Linke's voters least (55% approval); overall, 69% support him, while 15% oppose him. His nomination was "broadly welcomed" by the German media, which were described as "jubilant." However, his candidacy was criticized by Die Linke, and met with some other individual criticism; he was criticized by individual CSU members for not being married to the woman he lives with, and by individual politicians of the Greens, notably for his earlier statements on Thilo Sarrazin and the occupy movement. The SPD chairman, Sigmar Gabriel, however, stated that the reason that Die Linke as the only party did not support Gauck was its "sympathy for the German Democratic Republic."

David Gill was appointed head of Gauck's transition team.

On 18 March 2012, Gauck was elected President of Germany with 991 of 1228 votes in the Federal Convention. Upon accepting his election, he assumed the presidency immediately. The new President took the oath of office required by article 56 of Germany's Constitution on Friday 23 March 2012 in the presence of the assembled members of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.

Gauck married Gerhild "Hansi" Gauck (née Radtke), his childhood sweetheart whom he met at age ten, but the couple has been separated since 1991. They were married in 1959, at 19, despite his father's opposition, and have four children: sons Christian (born 1960) and Martin (born 1962), and daughters Gesine (born 1966) and Katharina (born 1979). Christian, Martin and Gesine were able to leave East Germany and emigrate to West Germany in the late 1980s, while Katharina, still a child, remained with her parents. His children were discriminated against and denied the right to education by the communist regime because their father was a pastor. His son Christian, who along with his brother decided to leave the GDR in early 1984 and was able to do so in 1987, studied medicine in West Germany and became a physician.

Since 2000, his domestic partner has been Daniela Schadt, a journalist.

Masatoshi Koshiba

Masatoshi Koshiba (小柴 昌俊 Koshiba Masatoshi) (born on September 19, 1926 in Toyohashi, Aichi) is a Japanese physicist. He jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002.

He graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1951 and received a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Rochester, New York, in 1955. From July 1955 to February 1958 he was Research Associate, Department of Physics, University of Chicago; from March 1958 to October 1963, he was Associate Professor, Institute of Nuclear Study, University of Tokyo, although from November 1959 to August 1962 he was on leave from the above as Senior Research Associate with the honorary rank of Associate Professor and as the Acting Director, Laboratory of High Energy Physics and Cosmic Radiation, Department of Physics, University of Chicago. At the University of Tokyo he became Associate Professor in March 1963 and then Professor in March 1970 in the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, and Emeritus Professor there in 1987. From 1987 to 1997, Koshiba taught at Tokai University. In 2002, he jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos". (The other shares of that year's Prize were awarded to Raymond Davis Jr. & Riccardo Giacconi of the U.S.A.)

He is now Senior Counselor of ICEPP and Emeritus Professor of University of Tokyo.

Koshiba's award-winning work centred on neutrinos, subatomic particles that had long perplexed scientists. Since the 1920s it had been suspected that the Sun shines because of nuclear fusion reactions that transform hydrogen into helium and release energy. Later, theoretical calculations indicated that countless neutrinos must be released in these reactions and, consequently, that Earth must be exposed to a constant flood of solar neutrinos. Because neutrinos interact weakly with matter, however, only one in a trillion is stopped on its way to Earth. Neutrinos thus developed a reputation as being undetectable.

In the 1980s, Koshiba, drawing on the work done by Raymond Davis Jr, constructed an underground neutrino detector in a zinc mine in Japan. Called Kamiokande II, it was an enormous water tank surrounded by electronic detectors to sense flashes of light produced when neutrinos interacted with atomic nuclei in water molecules. Koshiba was able to confirm Davis's results—that the Sun produces neutrinos and that fewer neutrinos were found than had been expected (a deficit that became known as the solar neutrino problem). In 1987 Kamiokande also detected neutrinos from a supernova explosion outside the Milky Way. After building a larger, more sensitive detector named Super-Kamiokande, which became operational in 1996, Koshiba found strong evidence for what scientists had already suspected—that neutrinos, of which three types are known, change from one type into another in flight; this resolves the solar neutrino problem, since early experiments could only detect one type, not all three.

In 2003, he was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics.

Prof. Koshiba is a member of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

He is a foreign fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences.

Professor Harald zur Hausen

Harald zur Hausen (born March 11, 1936 in Gelsenkirchen, Province of Westphalia) is a German virologist and professor emeritus. He has done research on cancer of the cervix, where he discovered the role of papilloma viruses, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008.

Zur Hausen was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, went to the Gymnasium in Vechta, and studied medicine at the Universities of Bonn, Hamburg and Düsseldorf and received a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1960 from the University of Düsseldorf, after which he became a medical assistant.

Two years later, he joined the Institute for Microbiology at the University of Düsseldorf as a laboratory assistant. After three and a half years, he moved to Philadelphia and worked at the Virus Laboratories of the Children's Hospital together with the famous husband and wife virologists, Werner and Gertrude Henle, who had to escape from Nazi Germany. In a ground-breaking study, he contributed to finding for the first time that a cancer virus (Epstein-Barr virus) can transform healthy cells (lymphocytes) into cancer cells. This directly showed that viruses can cause cancer cell formation. He became an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1969, he became a regular teaching and researching professor at the University of Würzburg, where he worked at the Institute for Virology. In 1972, he moved to the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. In 1977, he moved on to the University of Freiburg (Breisgau), where he headed the department of virology and hygiene. Working with Lutz Gissmann, zur Hausen first isolated human papillomavirus 6 by simple centrifugation from genital warts. Together with Ethel-Michelle de Villiers, who would marry zur Hausen after his divorce from his first wife, this group isolated HPV 6 DNA from genital warts, suggesting a possible new way of identifying viruses in human tumors. This paid off several years later in 1983 when zur Hausen identified HPV 16 DNA in cervical cancer tumors by Southern blot hybridization. This was followed by discovery of HPV18 a year later, thus identifying the culprits responsible for ~75% of human cervical cancer. This sparked a major scientific controversy with other scientists favoring herpes simplex as a cause for cervical cancer.

From 1983 until 2003 zur Hausen served as a chairman and member of the scientific advisory board of the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ in German) in Heidelberg and professor of medicine at the University of Heidelberg. He also is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Cancer. He is author of the book Infections Causing Human Cancer from 2006. On January 1, 2010 zur Hausen became the president of the German Cancer Aid, the leading organization fighting cancer in Europe. It was founded by doctor Mildred Scheel, the late “First Lady” of Germany. Zur Hausen has three sons from his first wife.

Zur Hausen's specific field of research is the study of oncoviruses. In 1976, he published the hypothesis that human papillomavirus plays an important role in the cause of cervical cancer. Together with his collaborators, he then identified HPV16 and HPV18 in cervical cancers in 1983-4. This research directly made possible the development of a vaccine which was introduced in 2006. See also HPV vaccine. He is also credited with discovery of the virus causing genital warts (HPV 6) and a monkey lymphotropic polyomavirus that is a close relative to a recently discovered human Merkel cell polyomavirus, as well as techniques to immortalize cells with Epstein-Barr virus and to induce replication of the virus using phorbol esters. His work on papillomaviruses and cervical cancer received a great deal of scientific criticism on initial unveiling but subsequently was confirmed and extended to other high-risk papillomaviruses.

He received the Gairdner Foundation International Award in 2008 for his contributions to medical science. He also shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, who discovered the human immunodeficiency virus.

There was controversy over the 2008 Nobel when it was learned that Bo Angelin, a member of the Nobel Assembly that year, also sat on the board of AstraZeneca, a company which earns patent royalties for HPV vaccines. This was exacerbated by the fact that AstraZeneca had also entered into a partnership with Nobel Web and Nobel Media to sponsor documentaries and lectures to increase awareness of the prize. However, colleagues widely felt that the award was deserved, and the secretary of the Nobel Committee and Assembly made a statement that at the time of the vote, Bo Angelin did not know of AstraZeneca's HPV vaccine patents.

Eugen Doga

Eugen Doga (Евгений Дмитриевич Дога, translit. Yevgeniy Doga) (born March 1, 1937) is a Moldovan/Romanian composer. After the fall of the Soviet Union he lives in Moscow, Russia.

Eugen Doga was born on March 1, 1937 in the village Mocra, Ribnita, to Dumitru and Lisaveta Doga a family of peasants. Since childhood the future master was fond of the musical art tradition of performing musicians. In E. Doga’s native village (Mocra) lived at the time Fedot Murga - one of the famous fiddler-musicians family. “I have a lot of memories from my childhood’s years, I still remember the sugar candies without paper wrap... There were also expensive ones. I watched with envy at the boys who were opening very slowly, the real candy wrapped in glossy paper, which was very beautiful. It makes my mouth water even today recalling all this... Once I had the chance to open my wrapped candy very demonstrative, in order that everyone would have seen it, I still can feel its flavor... I can remember the candy wrapper and even that it was a square candy. I was a war child, that hadn’t had a swing, but I was still lucky to have a proper upbringing...

When I was a child my mother said that after the sunset, the tired sun goes to rest. But I don’t want to go beyond the horizon ... Like the sunflower, I straighten my gaze toward the horizon where the sun will rise again, bringing a new day, the day’s warmth, new hopes and a new music...

The fate once brought me, a barefoot child towards a great instrument, which seemed to be more than a stove- heated bed. It was painted black, glistening mysteriously – it was a grand piano. I was fascinated. I approached very shy and I didn’t understood how it happened that, from all keys that were fumbling touched by my feverishly fingers, I pressed by accident three white keyboards, which have filled like a fluid my soul and imagination for the rest of my life. I caressed for decades the keyboards, I bewitched the sounds, being tempted to connect to the whole universe organ, but I felt attracted more and more to the accord that sounded totally accidental, the mystery of which I have not unveiled and maybe I will never do...

Once, I don’t know by what miracle, a real orchestra arrived to our village. It was a real, symphonic orchestra. The club from my village, frankly it wasn’t a real club; it was only the name of it! –It even didn’t have a proper stage, it couldn’t fit them all, and that is why a lot of instrumentalists, including some giant violins, were playing off the stage. A fantastic and lasting music was flowing, while a person was "threatening" the orchestra with a wand. It was very curious for me that no one was dancing, when there was so much music performed! The naughty kids were getting closer and were stealthily touching the giant violins that were from another world ... Only later I realized that the giant violins were actually contrabasses.

I love freedom, no border spaces, height. As a child, I climbed the highest acacia to the top branches, so that my head would be above the highest top ... this height longing had followed my always. For me the sun was always a bright, burning uphill. My eyes and my hopes were always turned to the highest point in the sky, toward the zenith, but I haven’t seen this apogee ... If I would have to ask God for anything, then I would ask him to bring my childhood back.

I want that the people would realize that they are adults as late as possible, or they should know that the feeling of childhood is a benefic source for the state of mind; it is that life-giving energy, which helps you create and share joy around you.

The perceptual experience gained in childhood and early life, marked by the effervescence of the popular song, the living image of fiddlers Pofirie and Fedot Murga, descendants of the famous violinist dynasty of Gheorghe Murga, the picturesque charm of the fanfare and the musical band (taraf) of the village Mocra, Ribnita, will be the defining elements in the formation of his esthetic conceptions. They will gradually shape a genuine artistic credo.

Over a long time panorama and a spring chromatic, made of raw grass green, of a swath black and apple blossom white there is the gentle voice of the artist Eugen Doga, who said he had a difficult, but a beautiful childhood! And if he could only ask God for something, he would ask to turn him the childhood. He doesn’t need the age of a child, but the state of being child, to able, to discover the world again and again, to be surprised every time, never get the feeling that he has got enough from this life: "All think that, now is the moment when I write music, but they are wrong, all the music was composed in my childhood". In the same countryside landscape Eugen Doga is recalling his father bringing him to his first day of school by riding a black horse. The artist with sadness stir up that memory when his mother  sold the carpet from the main room to give an opportunity for Eugen Doga to continue his studies.

Studies:

1943 - 1951 - Primary school from Mocra village.

1951 - 1955 – Music Secondary school (Lyceum) from Chisinau, cello class of professor Pablo Giovanni Baccini.

1955 - 1960 - Chisinau State Conservatoire, cello class of Professor Gregory Hohlov.

1960 - 1965 - Institute of Arts from Chisinau, class of composition and music theory, Professor Solomon Lobel. Symphonic conducting courses.

During his years of studying, Eugen Doga met Porfirie Murga. While being a student at the “Gabriel Musicescu” Conservatory (today - Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts) E. Doga took part at some folklore expeditions and recorded on magnetic tape a lot of songs performed on violin by Porfirie Murga. E. Doga processed more than 24 songs taken from the repertoire of this fiddler musician. E. Doga made his first steps towards mastering the laws of professional music at Music College of "Stefan Neaga" from Chisinau. Doga's teacher for the main instrument is Paul Bacinin. The cellist Paul Bacinin graduated the Kiev Conservatory, and had performed in many orchestras from Ukraine, became later conductor and professor, and has fully manifested himself in the symphony orchestras of Tiraspol (Radio Orchestra) and Chisinau (Radio Philharmonic Orchestra).

Bacinin's attitude towards the profession, towards the artistic destiny was a really romantic one. E. Doga witnesses: "He lived in such a way that we, his students couldn’t live otherwise…” "What a phrase, what a phrase" he was saying during the performance and closing his eyes just for pleasure, and thus expressing his delight towards (particular - V.A) an unearthly place of study. Through his absolute, selfless love for music he made me love her with the same passion. A romantic maximum regarding the awareness of an artist's life is typical also for Eugen Doga: "As though I don’t live, I am unhappy, if I don’t work fruitfully, says the composer. I am surprised by the thought that I am ashamed to look at people when I go down the street: why do I live? Do I deserve the life? I hide, become grumpy, in one word I am unhappy. But if I was inspired, I get out into the street, trying to catch someone’s sight and I am happy to discuss with anybody ... I feel than for the sun it is too narrow between the walls as it is narrow for a heart to be closed in a chest..."

Thanks to P. Bacinin, E. Doga has not only mastered the performing art, but later has had the opportunity to work with the musical collectives of National Radio.

The master has made his first step in choral composition already in the early stage of study, while learning in the composition class of S. Lobel.

After graduation the class of composition, Eugen Doga continues his professional improvement by following the outlined plan by his teacher S. Lobel and creates after the first attempt to write film music, a series of 9 a capella choirs compositions.

First of all he studied cello (1951-1955). Cello was a difficult instrument to perform, because of an ungifted teacher, until he came to a class of a great musician, Pablo Baccini - italian, who later became Pavel Ivanovich Bacinin. He taught E. Doga to work, although for a boy that came from country, the work wasn’t something new he should get to use to. He led his pupils in the music world with ease and enthusiasm. He made him fall in love with the music in their future profession. During this time, Eugen wrote his first waltz in the end on the music sheet. He showed that to his friends, and they laughed at him, because that waltz was written in two quarters instead of three. After that has followed a long period of silence. He graduated the college with the Cello concert of C. Saint-Saens.

At the conservative he was secretly composing something in the notebook. And one day at a repetition of Moldavian Radio Orchestra, where he was combining the work between the studies (1957-1962), came his colleague Maria and offered a popular song for the next day’s concert. Orchestra conductor, P.I. Bacinin, said it would be good for her to performed one more song. Maria sadly admitted that she has only one popular song. Eugen said that he has a song, although this was only the desire to have a song. The conductor was not surprised; he leisurely agreed to introduce it into the program. Quickly finding the lyrics, E. Doga wrote a song until morning, and wrote also the orchestra scores. This was the first appearance from the "underground" and the first performance in the future famous singer Maria Biesu. Later it was already difficult to determine to what the composer pays more attention to the cello or composition. The scores were particularly interesting for him.

He orchestrated the works of Haciaturian, Shostakovich, Chopin, Grieg, also the venerable and semi-professionals composers from Moldova – the young composer had had a good deal of orchestrate and compositions arrange work. This was an excellent composition school for orchestra together with the theoretical study of a new musical creativity field.

During his studies at the conservatory, he played cello’s main repertoire, and completed the studies by performing "Rococo style variations" by P. Chaikovsky. But the pain that persists for a long time the in left hand, eventually paralyzed him. After partial recovery, it became clear that he will not be able to perform and that he will have to take seriously and professionally the work of composition. There have followed another five years at the conservatory, but already in the class of– M. S. Lobel at his main matter and M.Kopîtman - for polyphony. They were brilliant masters that were different in style and dedication, but just as profound and worthy.

Maturity:

Doga make his first appearance in local music with a strings quartet (1963). Throughout the years at the beautiful age of 65, the master confesses: "I don’t like the course of time. I'd turn it backwards to youth. Youth is wonderful. For it does not have insurmountable obstacles. Youth is not conscious about the time, the tiredness feeling, the quiet... At that time, or even by the first breath, I was discovering the world, the moon and sun, forests and rivulets with chirping birds and flocks of sheep, with beautiful stories from grandparents... Let's better climb above the sky, towards the stars and infinities. There youth is eternal. There is the place where the dreams take us, music does, or maybe contrary."

He began his career, already from his students years, as a cellist in the State Committee of the R.S.S.M. (Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic) Orchestra for TV and Radio-broadcasting (1957-1962). He then taught as a professor at the Music School "Stefan Neaga" from Chisinau (1962-1967) and was a member of the Editorial Board of the Ministry of Culture from R.S.S.M. (1967-1972). 

The field where he is standing in force and that brought him the international reputation: is the art of composition. He makes his first appearance in 1963 with a string quartet that will give him the opportunity to impose himself towards the conquest of professional altitude through vocation and availability. He is the author of valuable works of entertainment, film and stage music. Apart from his concern towards the cinema, he is the author of several original compositions (songs that became hits, chamber works and ballet compositions).

Eugen Doga writes also film music, becoming one of the most famous composers of movie and TV films in the post-Soviet space. He started in Moldova-film studio in 1967, writing the music for the comedy “We need a gatekeeper”. He wrote music to more than 200 films.

The diverse spectrum of genres approached by the composer; shows his interest towards various ways of sound expression for various stylistic and thematic areas. His music is, in all stages, exciting, vibrant and honest, it captures the listener with the melodic generosity and the emotional authenticity that it communicates.

In the political field, Eugen Doga was a member of the CPSU (Communist Party of Soviet Union) in 1976. He was elected popular deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the R.S.S.M. in IX - XI legislatures, then as deputy in the first Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. He also was a member of the Composers Board of the U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and Union Composers of Moldova, vice president of UCM.

Emil Constantinescu

Emil Constantinescu (born November 19, 1939) was President of Romania from 1996 to 2000.

He graduated from the law school of the University of Bucharest, and subsequently started a career as a geologist. Beginning in 1966, Constantinescu taught in the Geology Faculty of the University of Bucharest, where he also became Propaganda Secretary of the local organisation of the Romanian Communist Party.

After the Romanian revolution in 1989, Constantinescu became a founding member and vice president of the Civic Alliance. He was the acting chairman of the Romanian Anti-Totalitarian Forum, the first associative structure of the opposition in Romania, which was transformed into a political and electoral alliance - the Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR).

In 1992 he was elected president of the University of Bucharest, and became CDR's candidate for president. He lost the election to the incumbent, Ion Iliescu, after a second round.

He remains, however, heavily involved in politics through working for many NGOs, both in Romania and internationally. Emil Constantinescu is the current president of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, of the Association of Citizenship Education, of the Romanian Foundation for Democracy and also the founding president of the Institute for Regional Cooperation and Conflict Prevention (INCOR). He is also a member of the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy advisory board.

He and his wife Nadia, a former legal adviser whom he married in 1964, have a son, Dragoş, and a daughter, Norina, along with two grandchildren.

After winning a November 17 runoff against Ion Iliescu, Constantinescu was sworn in as president on November 29 and appointed Victor Ciorbea, the mayor of Bucharest, as Prime Minister of Romania. The government was formed by a coalition of political alliances and parties: the CDR, USD and UDMR.

In 1997, Romania began with great expectations. Initially, support for the new government was high, and a large segment of the population favored change. In February 1997, the Ciorbea government initiated its "shock therapy" programme, however the reform proved difficult: given the slow pace of privatisation and the stagnation during the previous government, the government's attempt to restructure the state industries was fitful, and the pace of privatisation was slowed. Blaming the old bureaucratic structures, Ciorbea launched a drive to streamline the various departments from the top down. These changes were promptly attacked as "political purges" by the opposition parties.

The reason for the delaying reforms can be explained by the lack of homogeneity and consensus of the coalition formed of three political alliances: the right-wing CDR, the socialist-leaning USD, and the Hungarian minority UDMR party. Widespread disagreement and tension surfaced within each of the three groupings, as well as between them, and nearly every political formation was plagued by infighting and rifts.

This perpetual friction slowed down the lawmaking process, producing constant delays in adopting laws by Parliament, and forced the Cabinet to resort to "emergency ordinances" to speed it up. This made many Romanians feel that the normal democratic process was circumvented. Coalition solidarity manifested, however, when the government rejected the flurry of no-confidence and nonbinding motions initiated by the opposition, such as the one introduced in mid-December that would have held the government responsible for the plummeting living standards.

By August, the government had admitted that living standards were still falling, and announced the closing of 14 loss-making state enterprises. A government reshuffle was attempted, but was only completed on 2 December, and it succeeded in only plunging the coalition into a severe crisis once two key PD ministers resigned from the cabinet. One-third of the ministerial posts, including finance, reform, and industry and commerce, were affected. A privatization ministry was created to replace several institutions with overlapping responsibilities. Only days later, however, the Cabinet was again plunged into crisis when the two UDMR ministers boycotted meetings to protest the coalition's failure to permit education of the country's large Magyar minority in the Hungarian language in all subjects. Foreign Minister Adrian Severin of the Democratic Party (PD, the leading force in the USD) resigned on December 23 after he claimed that some party leaders and media directors were working for foreign secret services. Another PD minister, Traian Băsescu, had to quit the Ministry of Transportation on December 29 for criticizing the Cabinet.

The crisis ended only when Ciorbea resigned on March 30, 1998, both as Prime Minister of Romania and Mayor of Bucharest.

By this time, dissatisfaction with government policies was rising. This led to a wave of protests by workers, students, and others that peaked in October. Former president Ion Iliescu's Party of Social Democracy in Romania split in June, and in December the new Alliance for Romania proclaimed itself "a third force" in the political arena.

A new government, headed by Prime Minister Radu Vasile took office on April 15, pledging to accelerate economic reforms, including privatization of major state firms, and sharply reduce state bureaucracy. However, the 1998 budget was delayed until 26 May, and this delay reduced foreign investors' credibility. The same year, revelations about government corruption surfaced in the form of a cigarettes-smuggling scandal in April. Finance Minister Daniel Dăianu warned mid-July that the budget deficit might exceed the 3.6% envisaged, and threatened to resign if the government followed through on a deal with Bell Helicopter Textron to purchase 96 helicopters in order to help modernize the armed forces. Dăianu was abruptly dismissed on September 23.

By early June new government crises were looming. The UDMR threatened to leave the coalition if the education law was not changed to allow the operation of a state-run Hungarian-language university. Also in June, a new scandal forced several senior officials to resign because of alleged links with the former communist secret service.

Against growing hostility among the Romanian populace, the Hungarian language university issue was brought up again in September, with a UDMR ultimatum. A compromise was reached, allowing for a "multicultural solution" (Hungarian and German).

On October 19 Privatization Minister Sorin Dimitriu resigned under criticism for the slow pace of economic reforms. On December 23, two days after the parliament had rejected a no-confidence motion presented by the leftist-nationalist opposition, the Cabinet decided to restructure itself, cutting the number of ministries from 24 to 17. Finally, on December 28, the government signaled that it was prepared to speed up economic reforms by allowing the State Property Fund to initiate legal action to close 30 loss-making state companies.

In January 1998 the miners attempted to unseat the government, angry at the reduction of government subsidies. The situation ended once Miron Cozma, the leader of the miners, was arrested on February 14.

This crisis revealed that a heterogeneous four-party coalition, broadly in agreement about aligning the country with the West but divided over personal rivalries and policy details, lacked control over key parts of a bureaucracy unreformed since communist times. The fact that crowds greeted the miners on their march showed that the government's austerity measures were deeply resented, mostly in regions dependent on heavy industries earmarked for closure. International agencies had made economic assistance conditional on the closure of loss-making plants. Also, the economic upturn expected to follow after decades of privation still failing to happen, support for the opposition party PSDR rose.

With an eye to EU requirements, Romania had met a $2 billion debt service due in mid-1999 but at a cost of depleting its foreign exchange reserves. The privatization agency earned praise abroad in 1999 for quickening the pace of sell-offs in a country where 80% of the economy was still in state hands. It was assailed, however, along with other reformers, by private television stations whose influence had soared as the reputation of politicians slumped.

At the year's end, Radu Vasile resigned, and was replaced as Prime Minister by Mugur Isărescu, governor of the central bank since 1990. He had only a few months to draw up an economic strategy for the period 2000–06 in order to prepare Romania for accession to the European Union (EU). Isărescu won praise for persuading the Social Democratic Party of Romania (PDSR), the main opposition party, to endorse a policy committing Romania to a steady shift toward a market economy. Enjoying a runaway lead in the opinion polls, the PDSR was committed to an economic strategy drawn up in conjunction with officials from the EU, World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

A modest recovery at the beginning of 2000 suffered a setback by a severe drought, and a subsequent bad harvest, requiring costly imports of grain and foodstuffs.

The government's foreign policy was seen as a strong point. It adopted a pro-Western stance, and early in its mandate launched a diplomatic offensive to improve the image of Romania abroad. President Constantinescu received senior foreign officials, including French President Jacques Chirac (February 1997) and U.S. President Bill Clinton (July 1997). Joining NATO and the European Union were proclaimed Romania's top foreign policy priorities. With these objectives in mind, Romania sought to improve relations with its neighbours and signed a basic treaty with Ukraine in June. The country was nonetheless passed over in the first wave of expansion by both NATO and the EU.

In March 1998 Constantinescu attended the London conference of European Union member states and candidates, and in July he took advantage of a nine-day visit in the U.S. to argue before a joint session of Congress that his country played a key role in Balkan stability and should therefore be admitted to NATO. In October Romania agreed to allow limited access to its air space in the event of NATO military intervention in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

On 7–9 May 1999, Pope John Paul II visited Romania.

The CDR government's and Constantinescu's presidency were marred by an economic recession. Nevertheless, his presidency is now credited with ending the Mineriads, a reform of the banking system, and with attracting the first major foreign investments in Romania. With dashed expectations of an immediate improvement in daily life, Romanians exhibited strong disillusionment with the major parties and politicians, with the Greater Romania Party gaining the 2nd place in the 2000 elections. A disenchanted Emil Constantinescu, who lost popularity and had failed to fulfill his reformist agenda announced on July 17 that he would not run for a second term. He temporarily withdrew from political life at the end of his term in November 2000. Constantinescu's direction in foreign affairs continued however after the comeback of Ion Iliescu in 2000. Eventually, Romania joined NATO in 2004.

The former President returned to the political scene in 2002 as head of the Acţiunea populară (People's Action) party, which eventually joined the merged into the National Liberal Party in 2008. Constantinescu has occasionally criticized the policies of the 2004-2009 president, Traian Băsescu, accusing him of authoritarian tendencies, and supported Crin Antonescu in the first round of the 2009 presidential elections.

He is a frequent speaker at the Oslo Freedom Forum and in 2010 presented the Oslo Freedom Forum with a presidential medal. He is also a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Emil Constantinescu is on the Board of Directors of the World Justice Project. The World Justice Project works to lead a global, multidisciplinary effort to strengthen the Rule of Law for the development of communities of opportunity and equity.

Andrei Plesu

Andrei Gabriel Pleşu (born August 23, 1948) is a Romanian philosopher, essayist, journalist, literary and art critic. He has been intermittently involved in politics assuming the roles of Minister of Culture (1989-91), Minister of Foreign Affairs (1997-99) and presidential counsellor for external affairs (2004-05).

Born in Bucharest, the son of Radu Pleşu, a surgeon and Zoe Pleşu (born Rădulescu), he spent much of his early youth in the country side. He started school in Sinaia, but attended the village school in Pârscov, in the Nehoi valley from 1955 to 1957, and often returned to the mountains during school holidays. Plesu attended the Spiru Haret National College in Bucharest majoring in humanities, where he graduated at the top of his class.

Pleşu studied art history at the University of Bucharest and graduated with his bachelor's in 1971. That year, he accepted a post as a researcher at the Institute of Art History of the Romanian Academy. In 1972 he married Catrinel Maria Petrulian. For 1975–1977 he received the first of his Alexander von Humboldt Foundation graduate scholarships to study in Bonn and Heidelberg. From 1978 through 1982, along with Gabriel Liiceanu, he attended Constantin Noica's informal and semi-clandestine lectures in Păltiniş. In 1980 he became a faculty lecturer in the Art department at the University of Bucharest. However in 1982 he was barred from further university teaching for "political reasons", and took a job as a consultant for the Artists Union. He received his second Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for 1983–1984, and upon his return again worked at the Institute of Art History.

In April 1989, Pleşu lost his job at the Institute of Art History due to his open support of Mircea Dinescu, objected to by the communist regime. This resulted in his exile to Tescani, a village in Bereşti-Tazlău commune, Bacău County, and he was forbidden from publishing. After the Romanian Revolution of 1989 he was one of the founders of the "New Europe College" an institute of advanced studies, and of the cultural magazine Dilema (now Dilema Veche). He worked as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest and is now a professor at the University of Bucharest, where he teaches history of arts and philosophy of religion. He continues to be successful as a writer, and his books have all been well received by critics and readers.

He also became involved in politics, serving as Romania's Minister of Culture from 1990 to 1991, and Foreign Minister from 1997 to 1999. Between 2000 and 2004, Pleşu was a member of the National College for the Study of the Securitate Archives; he resigned the latter office in protest against political pressures on the committee. After the 2004 elections brought Traian Băsescu to the office of President of Romania, he became presidential counsellor for external affairs, a position he held until June 2005, when he resigned invoking health issues.

Two volumes were published in 2009, honoring Pleşu, both edited by Mihail Neamtu and Bogdan Tataru-Cazaban. The first was O Filozofie a Intervalului: In Honorem Andrei Pleşu (A Philosophical Interval: In Honor of Andrei Plesu) entirely in Romanian, and the second was an international Festschrift in honor of Plesu's sixtieth birthday, with essays exploring the themes of his life in current context.

Pleşu's early works revolved around art history and theory, but, in time, his essays, published in cultural magazines and elsewhere, became oriented towards cultural anthropology and philosophy. His exuberant writing style gained him recognition as one of the leading Romanian essayists of his age.

Gabriel Liiceanu

Gabriel Liiceanu (b. May 23, 1942, Râmnicu-Vâlcea) is a Romanian philosopher.

He graduated from the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy in 1965, and from Faculty of Classical Languages in 1973. He earned a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Bucharest in 1976.

Between 1965 and 1975, Liiceanu was a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, and between 1975 and 1989 at the Institute of Art History. He received a fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation between 1982 and 1984.

He is the manager of Humanitas publishing house since 1990. He is the professor at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Philosophy since 1992.

Liiceanu is also a founding member of the Group for Social Dialogue (1990), President of the Romanian Publishers' Association (since 2000), and member of the scientific council of New Europe College. Between 1998 and 2001, he was a member of the Romanian National Television's Administrative Board.

He was greatly influenced by his mentor, Constantin Noica, especially during the time spent at Păltiniş (experience that he evokes in his famous "Jurnalul de la Păltiniş" - "The Păltiniş Diary"). Noica, a Romanian philosopher known abroad as well as in the country, used to take his most valuable students and followers to his small house at Păltiniş, where he would teach them what they afterwards called "not philosophy lessons, but spiritual experiences". Another Noica follower that was invited to Păltiniş was Andrei Pleşu (Liiceanu and Pleşu are still friends today). Liiceanu refers to that experience in his books as to the "Păltiniş School" and the term began to be widely accepted and used in Romanian, as well as European philosophy.

Gabriel Andreescu considers that Liiceanu is a facilitator of extremism, since he promoted through his publishing house the interbellic Romanian nationalists and irrationalists, who were "ideologues of right-wing extremism".

Linda Gray

Linda Ann Gray (born September 12, 1940) is an American screen and stage actress, director, producer and former model.

Gray is best known for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing on the long-running CBS television series Dallas (1978–1989), for which she was nominated for two Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She played a leading role on the Fox drama series Models Inc. from 1994 to 1995, played roles in several made-for-TV movies, appeared on movies like Oscar and Expecting Mary and performed in stage productions such as The Graduate and Terms of Endearment. As of 2012 she starred in the TNT series Dallas.

Linda Ann Gray was born in Santa Monica, California. Before acting Gray worked as a model in the 1960s, and began her acting career in television commercials – nearly 400 of them – and also made brief appearances in feature films, such as Under the Yum Yum Tree and Palm Springs Weekend in 1963.

Gray began her professional acting career in the 1970s, with guest roles on many television series such as Marcus Welby, M.D., McCloud and Switch. She also appeared in the films The Big Rip-Off (1975) and Dogs (1976).

In 1977, she was cast as fashion model Linda Murkland, the first transgender series regular on American television, in the television series All That Glitters. The show, a spoof of the soap opera format, was cancelled after just 13 weeks. Gray was then cast as suspicious wife Carla Cord in the 1977 television movie Murder in Peyton Place.

Gray achieved stardom for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing, J.R.'s long-suffering alcoholic wife, in the CBS drama series Dallas (1978–89, 1991). Initially a recurring guest role for the five-episode first series, Gray became a series regular later in 1978 and remained with the show until 1989. Her character was well received by television critics. The Biography Channel said, "Who could ever forget Dallas with the gin-swilling Sue Ellen Ewing, replete with shoulder pads long before Dynasty, staggering around Southfork Ranch with a permanently tearful expression as she suffered the brunt of J.R. Ewing’s evil ways?" The Boulevard magazine said, "It may be 2009 and seventeen years since the primetime drama Dallas went off the air, but memories of the Ewing family still linger. Corruption and betrayal, lies, greed, affairs and scandal—all were just part of another day at the Southfork Ranch. At the center of it all was one of our favorite Ewings, the person we couldn't help but root for each week as she drank and slept her way through one ordeal after another. This, of course, was the tortured and (sometimes) villainous Sue Ellen Shepard Ewing, former Texas beauty queen and trophy wife of the womanizing rogue J.R. Ewing, played to perfection by actress Linda Gray." Gray was nominated for two Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her performance on Dallas. She also received numerous international awards including Germany’s Bambi Award, Italy’s Il Gato and she was named Woman of the Year by the Hollywood Radio & Television Society in 1982.

After Dallas, Gray starred in the 1991 comedy film Oscar with Sylvester Stallone and then made guest appearances in British drama Lovejoy (starring her co-star and love interest from her final series on Dallas, Ian McShane). She also starred in several made-for-TV movies, including 1991's The Entertainers (with Bob Newhart), Bonanza: The Return (1993), Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter (1993), and Accidental Meeting (1994).

In 1994, she made several guest appearances on the Fox network prime time soap opera Melrose Place. She appeared in four episodes as businesswoman Hillary Michaels, the mother of Amanda Woodward (played by Heather Locklear). She played a leading role on the Melrose Place spin-off Models Inc., but the show only lasted a single season.

Gray appeared in the Dallas reunion television movies Dallas: J.R. Returns (1996) and Dallas: War of the Ewings (1998), but in the following years did not appear in movies or on television.

In 2001, Gray portrayed Mrs. Robinson in the West End theatre production of Charles Webb's The Graduate. This brought her full circle, as her legs (not Ann Bancroft's) were the ones in the famous scene in the movie The Graduate where Mrs. Robinson's legs are admired by Dustin Hoffman. Gray made her theater directing debut with play Murder in the First, and other acting stage work includes Terms of Endearment, The Vagina Monologues, Agnes of God and Love Letters.

Gray returned to television in 2004 as a guest star in five episodes daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, playing Priscilla Kelly.

Gray starred in several independent films, including the award-winning drama Reflections of a Life (2006), where she played the best friend of a woman undergoing treatment for breast cancer; Expecting Mary (2010); The Flight of the Swan (2011); and Hidden Moon (2012).

In 2008, Gray appeared in The CW series 90210, which, like Melrose Place and Models Inc. before it, is a spin-off from the original Beverly Hills, 90210. Gray has now appeared in three of the five series in the franchise, though her role in 90210 was not Hillary Michaels, the character she played on Melrose Place (1992) and Models Inc.

In 2012, Gray reprised her role as Sue Ellen Ewing on the TNT drama series Dallas, a continuation of the original series.

Gray was married for 21 years to Ed Thrasher, an art director and photographer who designed many iconic album covers throughout the 60s and 70s. The marriage resulted in two children: Jeff Thrasher and Kehly Sloane. Gray also has two grandsons, Ryder and Jack Sloane. Her younger sister, Betty, died in 1989 from breast cancer. Gray was also the aunt (by marriage) of actress Lindsay Wagner, best known as The Bionic Woman. She resides in Los Angeles, California.

Pierre Brice (Winnetou)

Pierre Brice (born Pierre-Louis Le Bris on 6 February 1929) is a French actor, mainly known for his role as fictional Apache-chief Winnetou in German Karl May films.

Brice was born in Brest, France. When he was 19, Brice enlisted in the French Army and fought in the First Indochina War. While patrolling in Indochina, one of his team triggered a mine and its explosion sent Brice whirling through the air, but left him virtually unhurt. 

Later he served as a paratrooper during the Algerian War. From 1962 to 1968 he acted in a total of eleven West German Western movies adapted from novels by German author Karl May, in which he played the fictional Indian chief Winnetou of the Mescalero Apache tribe, alongside Lex Barker (7 movies), Stewart Granger (3 movies) and Rod Cameron (1 movie) as the white heroes.

After the films he also played this role at the Karl May Festspiele in Elspe from 1977 to 1980 and 1982 to 1986 and at the Karl May Festival in Bad Segeberg open-air theatre, Germany, from 1988 to 1991; he also worked there until 1999 as director of several open-air theatre productions. (The open-air theatre in Bad Segeberg is dedicated only to productions of Karl May plays.)

Besides theatre productions, he was mainly seen in TV-series, including "Ein Schloss am Wörthersee" (A Castle by the Woerthersee) and "Die Hütte am See" (The Cottage by the Lake). In 1979 Brice again played Winnetou in a 14-part TV series called "Mein Freund Winnetou" (My friend Winnetou – Winnetou le Mescalero), which did not originate from Karl May material. 

In 1997 he appeared in a two-part TV mini series "Winnetous Rückkehr" (The Return of Winnetou), which earned devastating criticism from the fans, since the character had died in the movie "Winnetou III" and now suddenly returned to life. Again, this did not originate from writings by Karl May.

Pierre Brice tried to escape the Winnetou character in a 1976 TV series, "Die Mädchen aus dem Weltraum" (Star Maidens), and in several movies for the big screen, playing Zorro in the Italian "Zorro contro Maciste" (1963). 

He also worked with Terence Hill (still called Mario Girotti at the time) in "Schüsse im Dreivierteltakt" (Shots in 3/4 Time) (1965), with Lex Barker in a non-Karl May film "Die Hölle von Manitoba" (A Place Called Glory City) (1965) and in the anthology "Gern hab' ich die Frauen gekillt" (Killer's Carnival) (1966).
Stewart Granger, Lex Barker and Pierre Brice finally worked together in one movie – but for some reason, the actors did not share a single scene in the film.

Pierre Brice recovered some audience in France with TV series "Le Dessous du ciel" alongside Marie-Georges Pascal (1974) and "Orages d'été" with Annie Girardot (1989).