Biography

University professor, world-renowned researcher, inventor and member of the Romanian Academy

He created the first Romanian frequency modulation transmission installations, of his own design, with which the first experimental transmissions, on metric waves, were made in Romania (1947 - 1950). He conducted research and numerous works in the field of frequency modulation theory and practice. He also contributed to the organization and development of Romanian radiocommunication education.
He was born on August 8, 1907, in the commune of Borca, a picturesque locality in Neamţ county. He started primary school in the commune where he was born and finished it in the commune of Dubrovăţ, Iaşi county, where his father was transferred for work. In 1918, his father was transferred again for work reasons to Bacău, where he attended the local high school until graduating in 1926. In the same year, he became a student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (Politechnika of Bucharest). In parallel with his studies at the Polytechnic, he also attended the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Bucharest. In 1932, Gheorghe Cartianu obtained the title of engineer diplomat of the Polytechnic School of Bucharest, Electrotechnical Section.
Since 1933, engineer Gh. Cartianu has been employed by the Broadcasting Society, to work at the Bucharest Studio and the Otopeni broadcasting station. A year later, in 1934, he is asked by Professor Ernest Abason to take over the position of assistant in the courses of special mathematics and descriptive geometry at the Polytechnic School. At the same time, Professor Tudor Tănăsescu also asks him as an assistant in the newly established course of radio telecommunications.
In 1937 he resigned from his position at the Broadcasting Society and remained as an assistant at the Department of Radiocommunications, dedicating himself passionately to research, designing and building numerous installations. In 1940 he published a series of articles on the stability of linear and nonlinear electrical systems, through which he formulated the new stability criterion, known as the "Cartianu-Loewe Criterion". In the same year he became a collaborator of journals such as: L'Onde Electrique, Electronics Letters, Annales des eletrocommunication.
The results of his research were published in Romanian journals such as: Telecomunicații, Bulletin of the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Memoirs and Monographs of the Romanian Academy.
Continuing his teaching activity, in 1948, he was promoted to associate professor at the Department of Radiocommunications and taught the subjects of lines and antennas, radio engineering devices and installations and electricity. In 1949, he established the first radio relay link in the country, between the studios in Bucharest and the Tâncăbeşti broadcasting station, using a broadcasting station of his own design. In 1951, he built an original installation with which he carried out broadcasts and receptions on ultrashort waves with frequency modulation, demonstrating their superiority over amplitude modulation. In 1952, he was appointed head of the Department of Radiocommunications and taught the course on the basics of radio engineering. In 1963, he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy. He obtained the title of Doctor of Engineering with the work "Frequency Modulation" in 1968, and in 1970 he became a docent.
The list of scientific works published by Gh. Cartianu includes 75 titles, of which in specialized journals he published topics about: the stability of linear and nonlinear electrical systems, frequency modulation, synthesis of electrical networks in the time and frequency domain, relay or radio dispatcher communication systems.
He passed away on July 26, 1982, in the midst of his creative activity.
All the achievements that bear his signature – patented inventions, designed and built installations, published articles and treatises – are testimony to his great personality and attest to his important place in the history of Romanian electrical engineering and higher education.