ACTA GEOBALCANICA 5-2, 2019, pp. 43-46 43 IN MEMORIAM: PROFESSOR DR. GHEORGHE ROMANESCU DOI: UDC: https://doi.org/10.18509/AGB.2019.06 929Romanescu, G. Alin Mihu-Pintilie 1 , Cristian Constantin Stoleriu 2 1 Institute for Interdisciplinary Research - Science Research Department, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (UAIC), Romania 2 Department of Geography, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (UAIC), Romania corresponding author: mihu.pintilie.alin@gmail.com submitted: accepted: published: 15.12.2018 25.12.2018 18.01.2019 Abstract A great sense of loss and sadness marked the recent death of the great geographer Gheorghe Romanescu who passed away lightning on his way at his home in Iasi, the Romania on October 3, 2018 after a long battle with his weakened heart. Professor Dr. Romanescu was a highly respected member of the international Earth Science community, who devoted his life to understanding and describing the global issues of geography, especially in the field of hydrology, remaining highly active in his domain until the end of his life. Gheorghe Romanescu was born on September 1 st , 1959 in Malcoci (Tulcea County, SE Romania), a small village from Dobrogea, where he spent his childhood learning how to swim in Sf. Gheorghe branch or exploring the water labyrinth of the Danube Delta. Until the age when he had to leave to the port of Tulcea to attend high school studies, he was already known for wandering the banks of the Danube, a land of reeds and willows inhabited by an impressive ethnic and cultural mosaic. Due to the proximity to the water and nature, after high school, he attended the Faculty of Biology, Geography and Geology, specialization of Geography in French within Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași graduating in 1985. Between the years 1985 – 1991 he returned to the port of Tulcea and taught Geography at the Industrial High School no. 4 (1985 – 1986) and at Gymnasium school no. 5 (1986 – 1991). The Revolution and the fall of the Communist regime in December 1989 found him on the Danube's cliff armed with an automatic pistol without a loader defending the city's heritage buildings from ”imaginary terrorists”. This memory was recalled every time among different circles of friends describing those moments as a “short military service”. The scientific interest of Gheorghe Romanescu in Earth sciences and water studies, apparently from an early age, led him to return to the academic environment in Iasi, just 6 years after graduating the geographic courses of the oldest university from Romania. Thus, between 1991 and 1996 he worked as a scientific researcher within the Geography team of the Romanian Academy. At the same time, in 1994 he became a doctor in Physical Geography at the Institute of Geography in Bucharest, with his paper work about the Danube Delta, a morpho- hydrographic study under the scientific coordination of Prof. Dr. Petre Gâștescu, one of the pioneers of the Romanian Limnology. This achievement was followed by a period of extensive research in fields of study related to deltaic and coastal hydro-morphology. Since 1995, when he was still a young researcher, and until 1998, following his interest in global water studies, he completed three postdoctoral studies: 1995 - Sedimentology and Seacoast Geomorphology, Oceanography Institute, Southampton (UK); 1996 - Limnology, Konstanz University, Konstanz (Germany); 1998 - Geomorphology and Hydrology, Sorbonne I University - Paris (France). In 1998, after the international experience on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and the Alps, he transferred to the Department of Geography within the Faculty of History and Geography of the Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, where he initially worked as Lecturer and later as Associate Professor until 2003. After acquiring a significant research experience and as an achievement of the scientific results of the last 10 years, in 2003 he transfers