Basarab Nicolescu

Basarab Nicolescu (b. March 25, 1942, Ploiesti, Romania) is a theoretical physicist at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris. He is also a Professor at the University "Babes-Bolyai", Cluj-Napoca, Romania and Docteur ès-Sciences Physiques (PhD), 1972, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris.

He is the president and founder of the International Center for Transdisciplinary Research and Studies (CIRET), a non-profit organization (163 members from 26 countries).

As well as this, he is the co-founder, with René Berger of the Study Group on Transdisciplinarity at UNESCO (1992) and the founder and Director of the "Transdisciplinarity" Series, Rocher Editions, Monaco and of the "Romanians of Paris", Oxus Editions, Paris.

He is also a specialist in the theory of elementary particles, Basarab Nicolescu is the author of more than one hundred thirty articles in leading international scientific journals, has made numerous contributions to science anthologies and participated in several dozens French radio and multimedia documentaries on science.

Basarab Nicolescu is a major advocate of the transdisciplinary reconciliation between Science and the Humanities. He published many articles on the role of science in the contemporary culture in journals in France, Romania, Italy, United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and in USA.

Biographical profile

 * Who's Who in the World, 11th - 16th editions, Marquis Publishing Co., USA, 1992-2002
 * Who's Who in Science and Engineering, 3rd - 6th editions, Marquis Publishing Co., USA, 1996-2002
 * Romanians in Western Science and Culture, American-Romanian Academy Publications, USA, 1992

Awards and prizes

 * Member of the Romanian Academy, 2001
 * Doctor Honoris Causa of the University "Alexandru Ioan Cuza", Iaşi, Romania, 2000
 * Great Officer, Order "Faithful Service", Romania, 2002
 * Honour citizenship of the towns of Iaşi and Ploieşti, Romania
 * Prize of the Union of Writers of Romania, 1993
 * Prize Opera Omnia, Nichita Stănescu International Festival, Romania
 * Benjamin Franklin Award for Best History Book, USA, 1992, for the book Science, Meaning and Evolution - The Cosmology of Jacob Boehme
 * Silver Medal of the French Academy, 1986, for the book Nous, la particule et le monde. The same book has been selected by "Universalia 1986", Encyclopaedia Universalis Editions
 * Gold Medal at the First International Olympiad of Mathematics, Braşov, Romania, 1959

Books and texts in English

 * Manifesto of Transdisciplinarity, State University of New York (SUNY) Press, New York, 2002, translated from the French by Karen-Claire Voss.
 * Science, Meaning and Evolution - The Cosmology of Jacob Boehme, with selected texts by Jacob Boehme, translated from the French by Rob Baker, foreword by Joscelyn Godwin, afterword by Antoine Faivre, Parabola Books, New York, 1991.
 * A New Vision of the World - Transdisciplinarity, in The Design and Delivery of Inter- and Pluridisciplinary Research, Proceedings of the Muscipoli Workshop Two, The Danish Institute for Studies in Reasearch and Research Policy, Danemark, 2002, pp. 108-111.
 * In vitro and in vivo knowledge, in Unità del sapere e del fare: una soluzione transdisciplinare?, Istituto per Ricerche ed Attività Educative, Napoli, Italie, 2001, pp. 81-100, sous la direction de Ezio Mariani.
 * Transdisciplinarity and Complexity : Levels of Reality as Source of Indeterminacy, in Determinismo e Complessità, Armando Editore, Roma, 2000, pp. 127-142, edited by F. Tito Arecchi.
 * Hylemorphism, Quantum Physics and Levels of Reality, in Aristotle and Contemporary Science, Vol. I, Peter Lang, New York, 2000, pp. 173-184, edited by Demetra Sfendoni-Mentzou, introduction by Hilary Putnam.
 * Gödelian Aspects of Nature and Knowledge, in Systems - New Paradigms for the Human Sciences, De Gruyter, Berlin, 1998, translation from French by Karen-Claire Voss, pp. 385-403, edited by Gabriel Altmann and Walter A. Koch.
 * Levels of Representation and Levels of Reality: Towards an Ontology of Science, in The Concept of Nature in Science and Theology (part II), in collaboration with Michel Camus, Thierry Magnin et Karen-Claire Voss, Éditions Labor et Fides, Genève, 1998, pp. 94-103, edited by Niels H. Gregersen, Michael W.S. Parsons and Christoph Wassermann.
 * Peter Brook and Traditional Thought, in Contemporary Theater Review, Vol.7, Part 1, 1997, Harwood Academic Publishers, Amsterdam, translated from the French by David Williams (translated also in Japanese).
 * In the Valley of Astonishment, an interview with Basarab Nicolescu by Jean Biès, in Parabola, Vol.XXII, No.4, Winter 1997, New York.
 * Levels of Complexity and Levels of Reality, in The Emergence of Complexity in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, Proceedings of the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 27-31 October 1992, Casina Pio IV, Vatican, Pontificia Academia Scientiarum Editions, Vatican City, 1996 (distributed by Princeton University Press).
 * Science as Testimony, in Science and the Boundaries of Knowledge, Proceedings of the Venice Symposium, UNESCO Editions, Paris, 1986 (translated in Spanish and many other languages)

Editor of collective works

 * Transdisciplinarity - Theory and Practice, Hampton Press, USA (in press)