100 Notable alumni of University of Bucharest

Urmuz was a Romanian writer, lawyer and civil servant, who became a cult hero in Romania's avant-garde scene. His scattered work, consisting of absurdist short prose and poetry, opened a new genre in Romanian letters and humor, and captured the imagination of modernists for several generations. Urmuz's Bizarre (or Weird) Pages were largely independent of European modernism, even though some...

Grigore Gafencu was a Romanian politician, diplomat and journalist.

Corneliu Mănescu was a Romanian diplomat born in Ploiești. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania from 1961 to 1972 and as President of the United Nations General Assembly from 19 September 1967 to 23 September 1968.

Mihail Drumeș was an Ottoman-born Romanian prose writer and playwright.

Oskar Pastior was a Romanian-born German poet and translator. He was the only German member of Oulipo.

Gheorghe Alexianu was a Romanian lawyer, high school teacher and associate professor who served as governor of Transnistria between 1941 and 1944. In 1946, he was accused and convicted of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity; he was sentenced to death by the Bucharest People's Tribunal (sentence reconfirmed in the appeals of 2006 and 2008), and was...

Duiliu Zamfirescu was a Romanian novelist, poet, short story writer, lawyer, nationalist politician, journalist, diplomat and memoirist. In 1909, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and, for a while in 1920, he was Foreign Minister of Romania. Zamfirescu is best remembered for his Comăneștenilor literary cycle, comprising his novels Viața la țară, Tănase Scatiu, În război, Îndreptări,...

Adrian Severin is a Romanian politician and former Member of the European Parliament.

Dumitru Mazilu is a Romanian politician. He had a key role in the events of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 and in exposing the human rights abuses of the Ceaușescu regime.

Robert Turcescu is a Romanian journalist, politician, TV presenter, media critic, radio personality, and singer-songwriter.

Ioan I. Cantacuzino was a renowned Romanian physician and bacteriologist, a professor at the School of Medicine and Pharmacy of the University of Bucharest, and a titular member of the Romanian Academy. He established the fields of microbiology and experimental medicine in Romania, and founded the Cantacuzino Institute.

Alexandru Marghiloman was a Romanian conservative statesman who served for a short time in 1918 (March–October) as Prime Minister of Romania, and had a decisive role during World War I.

Carol-Eduard Novak is a Romanian road and track racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team Team Novak.

Elisabeta Polihroniade was a Romanian chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM), and an International Arbiter (1986). She was born in Bucharest.

Eugen Tomac is a Romanian politician, historian and journalist currently serving as MEP in the European Parliament for Romania since 2019. He is also the President of the People's Movement Party (PMP).

Alexandra Bellow was a Romanian-American mathematician who made contributions to the fields of ergodic theory, probability and analysis.

Solomon Marcus was a Romanian mathematician, member of the Mathematical Section of the Romanian Academy (full member from 2001) and emeritus professor of the University of Bucharest's Faculty of Mathematics.

Dorin Chirtoacă is a Moldovan politician who served as Mayor of Chișinău from 2007 to 2018.

Mircea Ionescu-Quintus was a Romanian politician who served as a senator and Minister of Justice in the Stolojan Cabinet (1991–1992). He was also the second post-1989 president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) from 1993 to 2001. He also briefly served as Senate President in 2000, during the late part of the Romanian Democratic Convention (CDR) governance. Ionescu-Quintus turned 100...

Renate Weber is a Romanian lawyer and human rights activist who, in November 2007, was elected as Member of the European Parliament. She is the first Romanian appointed as Chief of an EU Election Observation Mission. Between 2004–2005 she was Advisor on constitutional and legislative matters to then President of Romania, Traian Băsescu. She previously served as the Romanian Ombudsman...

Titus Corlățean KSR is a Romanian politician and diplomat, former Minister of Justice and of Foreign Affairs. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), part of the Party of European Socialists, and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for Brașov County in the 2004 elections.

Radu-Anton Câmpeanu was a Romanian politician who was also jurist and economist by profession, after graduating from the University of Bucharest (UB) in November 1945, specializing in constitutional right. During the interwar period and up until 1945, he was the leader of the National Liberal students' association at nationwide level (the equivalent of today's National Liberal Youth Wing or TNL...

Dan Gheorghe Dungaciu is a Romanian sociologist and geopolitician.

Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art. He was married to Elena Vianu, herself a literary critic, and was the father of Ion Vianu, a psychiatrist, writer and essayist.

Justinian Marina was a Romanian Orthodox prelate. He was the third patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, serving between 1948 and 1977.

Nikolai Konstantinovich Sudzilovsky was a revolutionary and scientist. He was from the Russian Empire and later emigrated to the United States.

Bogdan Lucian Aurescu is a Romanian judge of the International Court of Justice. Prior to his swearing-in on 6 February 2024, Aurescu was a diplomat, law professor and politician, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania between 4 November 2019 and 15 June 2023 under prime ministers: Ludovic Orban, Florin Cîțu and Nicolae Ciucă. He also held that...

Valeriu Sterian ( Romanian pronunciation: [vaˈlerju steriˈan]; 21 September 1952, in Știubei, Buzău County – 16 September 2000, in Bucharest) was a Romanian folk and rock musician.

Radu Vasile was a Romanian politician, historian, academic/professor, and poet.

Horia-Roman Patapievici is a Romanian conservative and classical liberal writer, physicist, and essayist who served as the head of the Romanian Cultural Institute from 2005 until August 2012. Between 2000 and 2005, he was a member of the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives, supporting more openness regarding the files of the Securitate.

Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian. He is mostly known for his debunking of historical myths about Romania, for purging mainstream Romanian history of deformations arising from ideological propaganda, and as a fighter against pseudohistory.

Aleksandër Stavre Drenova, commonly known by the pen name Asdreni, was an Albanian poet, rilindas, translator, writer and the author of the poem which later became the national anthem of Albania. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of the 20th century and composed most of his Albanian Renaissance-inspired known works during that period.

Gabriel Liiceanu is a Romanian philosopher.

Adrian Mihai Cioroianu is a Romanian historian, politician, journalist, and essayist. A lecturer for the History Department at the University of Bucharest, he is the author of several books dealing with Romanian history (and specifically with the history of Communist Romania). He is also noted for his contribution as co-author of a high school textbook.

Nina Cassian was a Romanian poet, children's book writer, translator, journalist, accomplished pianist and composer, and film critic. She spent the first sixty years of her life in Romania until she moved to the United States in 1985 for a teaching job. A few years later Cassian was granted permanent asylum and New York City became her home for the...

Teodosie Petrescu is a Romanian cleric who has been the Archbishop of Tomis since 2001.

Emil Bobu was a Romanian Communist activist and politician, who served as Interior Minister from 1973 to 1975 and as Labor Minister from 1979 to 1981. He was an influential figure in the later years of the Communist regime until his downfall during the 1989 Revolution.

Adina-Ioana Vălean is a Romanian politician who served as European Commissioner for Transport under the leadership of President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen from 2019 until June 2024. She served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2007 until 2019, where she chaired the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy in 2019. In the...

Gabriel Oprea KSR is a Romanian politician and a general in the army reserves. The former president of the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) and a former member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) who is now an independent, he was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Ilfov County from 2004 to 2012 and...

Vlad Irimia, primarily known by his stage name Tata Vlad, formerly Tataee ([taˈta.(j)e]), is a Romanian record producer, rapper, record executive, and music manager. He is one of the founders of the influential Romanian hip hop trio B.U.G. Mafia, also having produced albums and overseeing the careers of many acclaimed Romanian hip hop artists, such as La Familia, XXL &...

Teodor Viorel Meleșcanu is a Romanian politician, diplomat, and jurist. He served as Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Romania (SIE) between 2012 and 2014. He was a three times senator on behalf of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Minister of Defense between 2007 and 2008, and Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1992 and 1996, in November 2014 and...

Nae Ionescu was a Romanian philosopher, logician, mathematician, professor, and journalist.

Vasile "Vasko" Popa was a Yugoslav and Serbian poet of ethnic-Romanian heritage. He is regarded as one of 20th-century Yugoslavia's and Serbia's most important poets, and his work has been widely translated.

Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu was a Romanian writer, best known for his 1949 novel, The 25th Hour, first published by Plon in France.

Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea; pen name of Barbu Ștefan; April 11, 1858 – April 29, 1918) was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of the greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.

Constantin Ion Parhon was a Romanian neuropsychiatrist, endocrinologist and politician. He was the first head of state of the Romanian People's Republic from 1947 to 1952. Parhon was President of the Physicians and Naturalists Society in Iași, director of medical institutes, professor, and a titular member of the Romanian Academy.

Spiru C. Haret was a Romanian mathematician, astronomer, and politician. He made a fundamental contribution to the n-body problem in celestial mechanics by proving that using a third degree approximation for the disturbing forces implies instability of the major axes of the orbits, and by introducing the concept of secular perturbations in relation to this.

Matei Vișniec is a Romanian-French playwright, poet and journalist living in Paris.

Vasile Voiculescu was a Romanian poet, short-story writer, playwright, and physician who wrote under the literary pseudonym V. Voiculescu.

Ana Birchall is a Romanian lawyer and politician. Since 2012, Birchall has served as a deputy for Vaslui County representing the Social Democratic Party. In the Victor Ponta and Sorin Grindeanu Cabinets, Birchall served as the Prime Minister's representative for European affairs and the partnership with the United States. After the resignation of Florin Iordache following anti-corruption protests, Birchall served...

Vazgen I also Vazken I of Bucharest, born Levon Garabed Baljian (Լևոն Կարապետ Աբրահամի Պալճեան; September 20, 1908 – August 18, 1994) was the Catholicos of All Armenians between 1955 and 1994, for a total of 39 years, the 4th longest reign in the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Dhimitër Pasko was a well-known Albanian writer, literary critic and translator. Along with Ernest Koliqi he is considered as the founder of modern Albanian prose; in Albanian literature his pen name for which he gained fame was Mitrush Kuteli.

George Topîrceanu was a Romanian poet, short story writer, and humourist.

Constantin Noica was a Romanian philosopher, essayist, and poet. His preoccupations were throughout all philosophy, from epistemology, philosophy of culture, axiology, and philosophic anthropology to ontology and logics, from the history of philosophy to systematic philosophy, from ancient to contemporary philosophy, from translating and interpretation to criticism and creation. In 2006 he was included to the list of the 100...

Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu was a Romanian communist politician and leading member of the Communist Party of Romania (PCR), also noted for his activities as a lawyer, sociologist and economist. For a while, he was a professor at the University of Bucharest. Pătrășcanu rose to a government position before the end of World War II and, after having disagreed with Stalinist tenets...

Cătălin Marian Predoiu is a Romanian politician and lawyer who served as the interim prime minister of Romania from 6 May 2025 to 23 June 2025, following the resignation of Marcel Ciolacu; from 12 June to 15 June 2023, following the resignation of Nicolae Ciucă; and from 6 February to 9 February 2012, following the resignation of Emil Boc.

Adrian Năstase is a Romanian jurist, academic/professor, blogger, and former politician who served as the prime minister of Romania from December 2000 to December 2004.

Ion Gheorghe Maurer was a Romanian communist politician and lawyer, and the 49th Prime Minister of Romania. He is the longest serving Prime Minister in the history of Romania (having served for 12 years and 343 days).

Paula Seling is a Romanian singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. She has released more than thirteen albums (including three Christmas albums) and over twenty singles, which include two top-ten hits in the Romanian Top 100, and a minor European hit which entered the charts in Finland and Norway, as well as the UK Singles Chart.

Cristian Diaconescu is a Romanian jurist and politician. He previously belonged to the National Union for the Progress of Romania (UNPR) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), as well as to the People's Movement Party (PMP), which he led from 2021 to 2022. He sat in the Romanian Senate from 2004 to 2012, representing Constanța County from 2004 until 2008,...

Corneliu Vadim Tudor, also colloquially known as "Tribunul", was a Romanian politician, poet, writer, and journalist who was the leader of the Greater Romania Party (Romanian: Partidul România Mare) and a Member of the European Parliament. He was a Romanian senator from 1992 to 2008. He was born and died in Bucharest, Romania.

Rona Hartner was a French-Romanian actress, painter and singer who was born in Bucharest. She was of German descent. As an actress, she was best known for her role in Tony Gatlif's film Gadjo dilo. Hartner focused on her music career, specializing in Gypsy music. She died of lung and brain cancer in Toulon on 23 November 2023, at the...

Marin Preda was a Romanian novelist, post-war writer and director of Cartea Românească publishing house. He is considered by some to be the most important novelist in post-World War II Romanian literature. However, he has also garnered an ambivalent perception in post-socialist Romania: Preda's final novel, Cel mai iubit dintre pământeni ("The Most Beloved of Earthlings"), published just a couple...

Ștefania Mărăcineanu was a Romanian physicist. She worked with Marie Curie and studied the element named for Curie's homeland Polonium. She made proposals that later lead to Irène Joliot-Curie's Nobel Prize. Mărăcineanu believed that Joliot-Curie had taken her work on induced radioactivity to receive the prize.

George Emil Palade ForMemRS HonFRMS was a Romanian-American cell biologist. In 1974 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Albert Claude and Christian de Duve. The prize was granted for his innovations in electron microscopy and cell fractionation which together laid the foundations of modern molecular cell biology, the most notable discovery being the ribosomes...

Ana Aslan, born Anna Aslanyan, was a Romanian biologist and physician of partial Armenian descent. She was born in Brăila and died in Bucharest. Aslan was a specialist in gerontology, academician from 1974 and the director of the National Institute of Geriatrics and Gerontology (1958–1988) known for her invention of the drug Gerovital (H3). Aslan received international recognition for her...

Camil Petrescu was a Romanian playwright, novelist, philosopher and poet. He marked the end of the traditional novel era and laid the foundation of the modern novel era in Romania. He was a member of the Sburătorul and a mentor to the writer Anișoara Odeanu.

Mihaela Buzărnescu is a Romanian tennis player. She has a career-high WTA singles ranking of No. 20, achieved on 6 August 2018. Her best doubles ranking of world No. 24, she reached on 22 October 2018. She won one singles title and two doubles titles on the WTA Tour.

Mihai Șora was a Romanian philosopher and essayist.

Ion Barbu was a Romanian mathematician and poet. His name is associated with the Mathematics Subject Classification number 51C05, which is a major posthumous recognition reserved only to pioneers of investigations in an area of mathematical inquiry. As a poet, he is known for his volume Joc secund ("Mirrored Play"), in which he sought to fulfill his vision of a...

Nichita Stănescu was a Romanian poet and essayist.

George Crin Laurențiu Antonescu is a Romanian politician and history teacher who served as Acting President of Romania in 2012. He was also candidate in the 2009 and 2025 presidential elections, finishing both in third place.

Valentin Ceaușescu is a Romanian physicist. He is the eldest and only surviving child of former communist President Nicolae Ceaușescu and Elena Ceaușescu.

Zoia Ceaușescu was a Romanian mathematician, the daughter of Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena and sister of Nicu Ceaușescu and Valentin Ceaușescu. She was also known as Tovarășa Zoia (comrade Zoia).

George-Nicolae Simion is a Romanian far-right politician and civic activist. He is the founder and chairman of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), the second largest party in both houses of parliament since 2024. He was a candidate in the 2025 Romanian presidential election.

David Popovici KSR is a Romanian competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle events and is the reigning Olympic champion in the 200-metre event, having won the gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics. He is the current holder of the European record and the junior world record, as well as the former holder of the world record in the long...

Andrey Vyacheslavovich Kuraev is a Russian theologian, philosopher, publicist, blogger, and missionary. Since 3 April 2024, he has been a Protodeacon of the Church of Constantinople (since July 2024, a clergyman of the Exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Lithuania ).

Victor Viorel Ponta is a Romanian politician and jurist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from 2012 to 2015. He was president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) from 2010 to 2015, and joint leader (2012–2014) of the then-governing Social Liberal Union (USL), an alliance with the National Liberal Party (PNL). Ponta was a member of the Romanian Chamber...

Emil Constantinescu is a Romanian professor and politician, who served as the president of Romania from 1996 to 2000.

George Bacovia was a Romanian symbolist poet. While he initially belonged to the local Symbolist movement, launched as a poet by Alexandru Macedonski with the poem and poetry collection Plumb ("Lead"), his poetry came to be seen as a precursor of Romanian Modernism and eventually established him in critical esteem alongside Lucian Blaga, Tudor Arghezi, Ion Pillat, Ion Barbu, and...

Adrian Mutu is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. During his playing career, he was deployed as a forward or an attacking midfielder.

Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. One of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and interpreter of religious experience, he established paradigms in religious studies. His theory that hierophanies form the basis of religion, splitting the human experience of reality into sacred and profane...

Elena Ceaușescu was a Romanian communist politician who was the wife of Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and leader of the Socialist Republic of Romania. She was also the Deputy Prime Minister of Romania. Following the Romanian Revolution in 1989, she was executed alongside her husband on 25 December.

Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre in the 20th century. Ionesco instigated a revolution in ideas and techniques of drama, beginning with his "anti play", The Bald Soprano which contributed to the beginnings of what is known as the Theatre of the Absurd,...

Nicu Ceaușescu was a Romanian physicist and communist politician who was the youngest child of Romanian leaders Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu. He was a close associate of his father's political regime and considered the President's heir presumptive.

Dan Barna is a Romanian politician and lawyer. He served as the president of the Save Romania Union (USR), and as co-president of USR-PLUS until 1 October 2021. He was elected a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 2016.

Grigore Constantin Moisil was a Romanian mathematician, computer pioneer, and titular member of the Romanian Academy. His research was mainly in the fields of mathematical logic (Łukasiewicz–Moisil algebra), algebraic logic, MV-algebra, and differential equations. He is viewed as the father of computer science in Romania.

Eugen Lovinescu was a Romanian modernist literary historian, literary critic, academic, and novelist, who in 1919 established the Sburătorul literary club. He was the father of Monica Lovinescu, and the uncle of Horia Lovinescu, Vasile Lovinescu, and Anton Holban. He was elected to the Romanian Academy posthumously, in 1991.

Teoctist was the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church from 1986 to 2007.

Varujan Vosganian is a Romanian politician, economist, essayist and poet of Armenian origin. Vosganian was Romania's Minister of Economy and Commerce (2006–2008) in the Tăriceanu cabinet and Minister of Economy in the Ponta cabinet (2012–2013). He is the President of The Union of Armenians in Romania (UAR, 1990–present) and the Prime-vice president of the Union of Writers in Romania (2005–present)....

Lia Olguţa Vasilescu is a Romanian politician, member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). She served as mayor of Craiova from 2012 to 2017, when she resigned to become Minister of Labor. She was reelected as Mayor of Craiova in 2020 and since then she has been serving as the mayor of Craiova.

Călin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tăriceanu is a Romanian politician who served as prime minister of Romania from 2004 to 2008. He was also president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the vice-president of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR), two positions he assumed in 2004.

Corneliu Baba was a Romanian painter, primarily a portraitist, but also known as a genre painter and an illustrator of books.

Saul Steinberg was a Romanian-born American artist, best known for his work for The New Yorker, most notably View of the World from 9th Avenue. He described himself as "a writer who draws".

Roberto Vannacci is a politician and former Italian Army military general. Since July 2024, he has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament; elected for the League, in February 2026 he founded his own political party, National Future.

Miron Cristea was a Romanian cleric and politician.

Albert-László Barabási is a Romanian-born Hungarian-American physicist, renowned for his pioneering discoveries in network science and network medicine.

Monica Luisa Macovei is a Romanian politician, lawyer and former prosecutor, and former Member of the European Parliament from the European Conservatives and Reformists and formerly a member of the Romanian Democratic Liberal Party (PDL). She was the Minister of Justice of Romania in the first cabinet of Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu. In this position she was credited with implementing...

Emil Cioran was a Romanian philosopher, aphorist and essayist, who published works in both Romanian and French. His work has been noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, style, and aphorisms. His works frequently engaged with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism. In 1937, Cioran moved to the Latin Quarter of Paris, which became his permanent residence, wherein he lived in...