Theodor V. Ionescu
Theodor V. Ionescu (February 8, 1899 – November 7, 1988) was a Romanian physicist and inventor who made remarkable discoveries in plasma physics, ionosphere physics, ion coupling electrons in dense plasmas, masers, magnetron amplifiers, and Zeeman effects related to controlled nuclear fusion and quantum emission mechanisms in hot plasmas. He was a member of the Romanian Academy from December 21, 1935. Ph.D. studies in plasma physics He received his Ph.D. in plasma physics, first in Paris at Paris-Sorbonne University, and then in Iași. Thus, the history of plasma physics in Romania began in 1923 with the defense of the first PhD thesis in physics at the University of Iași by Ionescu, under the guidance of Petru Bogdan. Ionescu carried out the first experimental studies in Romania of the physics of ionized gases/plasmas. Scientific achievements and collaborators In 1925 invented a microphone based on thermionic currents (currents emitted by heated bodies) and a light projector using the interference phenomenon. Founded in the same year the first Electricity and Magnetism Laboratory, as well as the first Chair of Electricity and Magnetism in the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Bucharest. The first prototype of a precursor to the magnetron