Alexandru Balaban

Alexandru T. Balaban (April 2, 1931 − ) is a chemist who significantly contributed to the fields of organic chemistry, theoretical chemistry, mathematical chemistry, and chemical graph theory.

Balaban was born in a small town Reşiţa in the western part of Romania, close to Timişoara. His parents (Teodor and Florica Balaban) paid a lot of attention to Balaban's education, strongly encouraging his fascination with chemistry. In 1935 his family moved to Bucharest where Balaban attended elementary school. After WWII, in 1945 they moved to Petroşani, where he finished high school. Alexandru Balaban enrolled the Polytechnica University of Bucharest in 1949, where he was awarded his PhD in chemistry on April 2, 1959. The topic of the PhD thesis was dealing with the restrictions catalyzed by anhydrous aluminium chloride.

More than forty years, professor Balaban held positions at the Chair of Organic Chemistry of the Polytechnica University of Bucharest (assistant professor (1956-1960), associate professor (1961-1966) and full professor (1970-1999). In addition, he was the Head of the Laboratory of Isotopically Labelled Compounds of the Bucharest Institute of Atomic Physics from 1967 to 1974.

From 1967 to 1970, he was appointed as a Senior Research Officer at the Chemistry Division, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria, in charge with radiopharmaceuticals.

From 1995 to 1998, Professor Balaban was acting as Vicepresident of the Romanian Academy.

From 1991 to 2012, he was the Tenured Professor of Chemistry at the Texas A&M University Galveston, USA (TAMUG). Since 2013, after retirement, Professor Emeritus at the same University.

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