Ioan-Aurel Pop
Hall of Fame Class of 2013
Ioan-Aurel Pop stands out not only for his scientific and published works but also for his work as the head of several important Romanian and European institutions. Pop was interested in continuing education as reflected in the higher classes in the history of Romania and Europe, after the Renaissance and especially starting with the 19th century. These ideas are incorporated in Pop’s work, concentrating mostly on the region of Transylvania and surrounding areas, which demonstrates the existence of the “Euro-regions of learning.”
In 1989, he was awarded a PhD at Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca. He went on to teach there, becoming a professor in 1996. In 2012, he became the institution’s Rector. He has been a member of the Romanian Academy since 2010 and of the European Academy of Science and Arts since March 2013 and has held visiting chairs and fellowships at prestigious institutions in Austria, Italy, and the USA.
Dr. Pop has been director of several collective projects and member in many other projects of national and international scientific research, as well as coordinator and organizer of several international conferences and editorial projects. Since 1992, he has been the editor of the ISI (Thomson Reuters) Transylvanian Review, promoting high-level research in the field of education, specifically adult education.
He has published more than 30 books as an author or editor, as well as numerous articles and essays and participated in several European research projects.
Dr. Pop has held many notable positions at an international level, including Manager of the Romanian Cultural Centre in New York and Manager of the Romanian Institute of Culture and Humanistic Research in Venice. He promoted numerous lifelong learning projects and programs, supporting scholarships for the professional development of the young researchers. His greatest recognitions include when he became the youngest person accepted among the members of the Romanian Academy in 2010, and in 1999, when he was appointed corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts in Paris and when he was accepted as a member of the European Academy of Science and Arts from Salzburg in 2013.
He has promoted the study of history for adults as part of the development of society; furthermore, he has developed relevant institutional policies and supported them in his capacity as Rector. Evidence of his success includes the fact that Babeş-Bolyai University has been ranked in the European Lifelong Learning program.
The exceptional value of Dr. Pop’s entire academic and policy-making career is to develop the continuing and intercultural education in a predominantly multi-cultural area of Romania. In his career he has applied the objectivity of the historian and impeccable scientific behavior to devise interventions that define the differences between myth and reality, truth and prejudice, scientific analysis, and stereotype.