The scholar I. Athanasiu and his scientific work.

The personality of the scientist I. Athanasiu united the happy complementarity of an exceptional professor and researcher. If Professor I. Athanasiu perceived science by its past and transmitted it in a synthetized form to his contemporaries, the researcher I. Athanasiu was permanently interested in the future, in the following stages of scientific research. In his short life, Professor I. Athanasiu illustrated brilliantly both aspects of a scientist's personality. Adding these qualities to his vivid, nonalterated and discrete patriotism, shown honestly among foreigners in the major European countries as well as among Romanians and foreigners in his country, his worries for the future of his homeland, especially for its youth, we realise another aspect of I. Athanasiu's personality, that of a scientist and patriot. By his scientific research, I. Athanasiu surpassed the limits of medical-veterinary area, approaching with talent and efficiency its related fields: human medicine and animal biology.