Press review – January 4, 2021

Ad Astra 2020 Award Winners List:

Andrei Rotaru - Craiova University. Field: Physical and Chemical Sciences. Category: Research Excellence Award for researchers with more than 7 years of experience and affiliation in Romania.

Serbian Nicolae Stamatin - The University of Bucharest. Field: Physical and Chemical Sciences. Category: Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research for researchers with less than 7 years of experience and affiliation in Romania.

Lucian Parvulescu - West University of Timişoara. Field: Life Sciences. Category: Research Excellence Award for researchers with more than 7 years of experience and affiliation in Romania.

Mădălina Icriverzi – Institute of Biochemistry of the Romanian Academy. Field: Life Sciences. Category: Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research for researchers with less than 7 years of experience and affiliation in Romania.

Daniel S. Veres – Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology, Romanian Academy Cluj Branch. Field: Earth Sciences and Space Sciences. Category: Research Excellence Award for researchers with more than 7 years of experience and affiliation in Romania.

Ovidiu It tickles – Wageningen University and Research. Field: Earth Sciences and Space Sciences. Category: Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research for researchers with less than 7 years of experience and affiliation abroad.

Edina Rusen – Politehnica University of Bucharest, Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science. Field: Engineering Sciences. Category: Research Excellence Award for researchers with more than 7 years of experience and affiliation in Romania.

Ladislau Matekovits – Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Politecnico di Torino. Field: Engineering Sciences. Category: Research Excellence Award for researchers with more than 7 years of experience and affiliation abroad.

Ciprian Dumitrache – National Institute of Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics (INFLPR). Field: Engineering Sciences. Category: Award for Excellence in Doctoral Research for researchers with less than 7 years of experience and affiliation in Romania.

The universities in Timișoara will benefit from modern student dormitories, newly built by the National Investment Company, with government funds from the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration.

The announcement was made on Wednesday by Cătălin Iapă from Timișoara, secretary of state within this ministry. Tenders for the construction (design and execution) of three student dormitories were launched in the second part of this year.

One dormitory for the Politehnica University of Timisoara, one for the West University of Timișoara and the third for the "King Mihai I" University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Banat.

The three dormitories will, in the end, involve investments of over 30 million euros (over 150 million lei, value with VAT included) and will contribute to increasing the quality of the conditions for students who come to study in the Timișoara university center, one of the university centers of Romania's elite.

The UPT dormitory was launched for procurement at the beginning of December, the deadline for submitting offers is February 8, 2021, and it will have 256 places.

The UVT dormitory was launched for purchase at the end of November, the deadline for submitting offers is February 5, 2021, it will have 902 places and will be the largest dormitory in Romania.

The USAMVB dormitory was released for purchase in June this year, the tender is nearing the end, with two companies competing for this contract and it will have approximately 200 seats.

The stage of these projects is advanced, and if the three tenders are completed successfully, the start of the construction site is the next step.

How often do you do things that bring out the best version of you? Or what motivates you, what energizes you? And how often do you help others? Well, you could be inspired by Claudiu Belețoiu, who found in running a passion that helps him combine them all.

As the pandemic canceled numerous running competitions, Claudiu Belețoiu thought he needed a new challenge. So, he ran 30 half marathons in 30 consecutive days (November 10 – December 9).

What makes you run? What is your inner drive? But the outer one? How does running make you feel?

Although it seems like the easiest question, it's very difficult for me – I still can't dot the i's, but I can definitely make a strong case for running. I can say that for me, running is that active meditation – whether it's a workout or a race. a drive outside is the fact that I associate any race with a humanitarian cause that I believe in, for which I raise funds.

The training I do is all year round, so I can't say I train specifically for a race. I have a training volume of over 5.000 km/year. Yes, I have goal races for which the training in certain periods is specific, but I usually have at least one training per day.

As for the mental part, it is quite difficult to put into words what is happening, because it is something internal, which differs from individual to individual. One thing that helps me is to visualize myself at the finish line.

1. What is the event of 2020 most unfairly overlooked by the media and public opinion?

The decline of Russian influence in the former Soviet space. The process that started almost three decades ago has entered a decisive phase, being accelerated by the pandemic. Russia has lost Ukraine for at least two generations. Moldova just elected a pro-European president. Belarus is still under the Russian umbrella, but a new generation is signaling its presence there, which wants to be in the West, and which will turn its back on the Kremlin, accused of holding the most odious Lukashenko in its arms.

Turkey is returning to the South Caucasus after a century, and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia have come under China's umbrella.

So: great agitation, from Minsk and Tbilisi to Bishkek, without Moscow being able to significantly influence the developments in these capitals.

November 10 is the day Russia renounced its status as a regional power. The signing of the armistice between Armenia and Azerbaijan with the mediation of Russia confirms it. If you abandon your only ally in the South Caucasus, who has shown exemplary loyalty, you can no longer claim to be taken seriously as a partner.

Just a few years before, the note of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan on the subject of the downing of the Russian helicopter by the Azerbaijani air force, in which the Russian military is also held responsible, was unthinkable. Or for the president of Russia, the foreign minister, the head of espionage, plus a dozen parliamentarians to criticize the president-elect of Moldova, because he reiterated a position known for almost two decades. That president runs a country the size of a Moscow neighborhood.

The Kremlin's solutions to the crises in the former Soviet space are not realistic, because Moscow reacts using its fist, military force, without taking into account the needs of the population of that country. There is no longer solid expertise in institutions with decision-making power, and the dramatic intellectual degradation of the elite following its militarization would render this expertise useless, since those with decision-making power cannot understand much anyway. They don't even try, since they think they know better. Many of these complicated files require civilian tools and not barracks tromping.

The US and Western European states should envision policies to stabilize Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia to fill this growing political and security vacuum.

Loneliness caused by work can be a problem even when everyone works in an office. But the sudden shift to working remotely can increase this risk, CNN journalists warn in an article.

"If you've been working with people for a while and you've had face-to-face connection and you're used to that way of working, now suddenly moving to remote work with little human connection can create a huge problem," said Ben Fanning, author of "The Quit Alternative: The Blueprint for Creating the Job You Love Without Quitting." "It's like being isolated on an island."

Even when you work at home alone with your wife and children playing around you - you can feel lonely professionally.

Research cited by CNN shows that loneliness at work can have negative effects on employee performance. You can be a less efficient employee if the other colleagues consider you difficult to approach and stop working with you.

"The lonelier you are, the less effective you will be," said Sigal Barsade, professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "Once you're lonely, you start to lose your social skills. You start behaving in ways that promote more loneliness.”

The "symptoms" of professional isolation might start with communicating less about yourself. Lonely employees may become more wary of the possibility of rejection by their colleagues, which can make them seem less approachable, says Hakan Ozcelik, a professor of management at California State University.