Important Guests

Tradition is that when a great personality visits a foreign country they should be given an honorary title by an important university. The University of Bucharest confers the titles of Doctor Honoris Causa, Professor Honoris Causa and Honorary Fellow of the Senate. The first of these is the most prestigious, and is awarded according to very restrictive criteria.

Our university has been greatly honoured to have given this title to a number of Nobel prize-winners: Leo ESAKI, Samuel C.C. TING, James McGill BUCHANAN, Alfred KASTLER and Glenn T. SEABORG. Recently the title was bestowed upon a laureate of the Nobel Prize for Peace, Shimon PERES, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel.

Some of those honoured are or were at the time presidents of various states: Jacques CHIRAC, Václav HAVEL, Julio Maria SANGUINETTI and others; or occupied high positions in their country's government, like Margaret THATCHER and Massimo D'ALEMA, or in international organisations, like Kurt WALDHEIM and Boutros Boutros GHALI.

Other international personalities to whom the title Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Bucharest has been given include UNESCO Director, Federico MAYOR; the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Leni FISCHER; the President of the Club of Rome, Ricardo DIEZ-HOCHLEITNER; the President of the European Court of Human Rights, Luzius WILDHABER, and the former President of the International Court in The Hague, Mohammed BEDJAOUI.

We should also mention ecclesiastical personalities such as Patriarch Bartholomaeus I of Constantinople, Patriarch Theoctistus of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph VON SCHÖNBORN, and the Rector of the Catholic University of Paris, Patrick VALDRINI.

But, of course, we are particularly proud to have among the honorary members of our University brilliant scholars, such as the psychologist Jean PIAGET, the philosopher of language John SEARLE, the mathematicians Chaïm BRÉZIS and Jean MAWHIN, the sociologists Immanuel WALLERSTEIN and Ralf DAHRENDORF, as well as the historians Jacques LE GOFF and Bronislaw GEREMEK.

Among Romanian specialists who have been awarded honorary titles for their contributions to world culture, may be named Dumitru STĂNILOAIE, Alexandru CIORĂNESCU, Emil TURDEANU and Ghiţă IONESCU. His early death prevented Sergiu CELIBIDACHE from being honoured in this way, as the Senate would have wished.