Vlad A. Codrea

Vlad A. Codrea (b. November 19, 1956, Oradea, Bihor County), university professor, PhD, graduated from the Faculty of Biology-Geography-Geology (1981) of Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca (UBB). He has competence in vertebrate palaeontology and evolution, stratigraphy and continental latest Mesozoic and Cenozoic environmental changes under various control factors (climate, eustatic etc.), regional geology of Romania.
He completed (1995) a PhD thesis entitled Evolution, stratigraphy and monographic description of Ceratomorphs in Romania, on the basis of which he was awarded (2002) the ‘Grigore Cobâlcescu’ prize of the Romanian Academy. In addition to the above-mentioned award, he was also awarded the ‘Ion Simionescu’ prize of the Romanian Paleontologists Society (2007) and the gold medal at the European Creativity and Innovation Exhibition (2019).
He has taught and still teaches (University of Oradea) a series of courses and related works: Geology of Romania, Quaternary geology, Geological events, Paleontology etc. He published alone or in collaboration 6 books, 350 papers in national or foreign journals, 169 abstracts, 52 works for the public (WOS indexes: hi – 22, 1372 citations). He has presented 507 papers at national and international symposia and congresses.
He is a member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (Illinois, USA), GeoD (Bucharest, Romania), the Division for the History of Sciences of the Romanian Academy. He has spent research and teaching internships in Paris, Brussels, Belgrade, Budapest, Chișinău. He is an authorized expert (no. 763/30.11.2010) of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, with expertise in geology and paleontology. He has led as project leader 8 national government grants, 3 international grants (National Geographic Society, Sepowski), being a member of 3 international and 47 national grants. He founded the Laboratory of Palaeotheriology and Quaternary Geology (2002) which operates de facto at the Faculty of Biology and Geology of UBB, with a collection of over 2500 samples, some of them potential holotypes.
Donor of very numerous paleontological materials to the Paleontology-Stratigraphy Museum of UBB, the ‘Țării Crișurilor’ Museum Oradea, the ‘Vasile Pârvan’ Museum Bârlad, the Mureș County Museum Tg. Mureș etc. Organizer of exhibitions for the general public (e.g., Dig-a-Dino in Brussels, 2002-2003; Dinosaurs of Romania in the Museum of Natural Sciences Galați, 2005; Last Dinosaurs of Transylvania at UBB, 2015, Sighetu Marmației, 2015, Museum of Mineralogy Baia Mare, 2020-20121; Mureș Country Museum in Tg. Mureș, 2023). It has trained 23 PhD students in Geology and Environmental Science, some of them now established researchers. He is currently affiliated apart UBB as honorary researcher at the Țării Crișurilor Museum Oradea, Mureș County Museum Tg. Mureș, Institute of Speleology ‘Emil Racoviță’ of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest.