Vintilă Ciocâlteu

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Vintila Ciocalteu, MD, PhD (1890 - 1947 ) was an eminent Romanian physician, researcher, professor and author.

[edit] Biography

He was born in Plenita, Dolj district of Romania. He distinguished himself throughout medical school and was active in the leadership of the student association. Due to his brilliant academic results, he was selected as the recipient of a Rockefeller grant to further his studies at Harvard Medical School in the United States. There, in collaboration with Otto Folin he co-developed the chemical reactive known as the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent (FCR).

He returned to Romania as a professor at the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila in Bucharest where he laid the foundation of the biochemistry lab. He also set up his own private additional research lab in the vacant formal Royal Stables. His credentials combined with the professorial and research activity led to the prestigious nomination as Dean of the medical school. As author, he published two poetry volumes and is mentioned in George Calinescu’s Istoria literaturii romane de la origini pina in prezent ("History of Romanian Literature From Its Origins to Nowadays"). In 1945 at the end of World War II and the subsequent advent of the communist era, Ciocalteu fell out of favor with the new political regime. Progressive intellectuals were not to be trusted, especially those like him that maintained an independent attitude and were “molded” abroad, therefore “tainted” by western influence. Many have paid with their lives and/or savage years of internment as political detainees for such mistrust.

It certainly looked like Ciocalteu was possibly headed for a similar fate when, in 1947 in the purest Stalinist style he was summarily and without warning “purged” from chairing the biochemistry department – his very creation and gift to generations in front of the professorial council.

The shock and humiliation caused him to have a massive heart attack that killed him right there, in front of his dumbstruck and tacitly sympathetic peers. The events generated a wave of impotent revolt and frustration among the dean’s real constituency – his students – that continued to hold him forever in their highest esteem.

[edit] Memorial

An inscription in the Great Hall of the Faculty commemorates his legacy.