I had started to study English as my fourth foreign language after German and French, which were both spoken in the family and Russian which was compulsory at schools behind the Iron Curtain. My native language was Romanian and long before I started private English lessons I had a cartoon-like impression of the British Isles from the plays of Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens, from the short stories of J.B. Priestley, the fabulous novels of Walter Scott‘s and from my bed side History of Architecture by Sir Bannister Fletcher. I also knew and admired Henry Moore whose exhibition was organized by the British Council in Bucharest. When I was a student in the 1960′s I was, of course a fan of the Beatles, although I had to keep this a secret from the Communist authorities who regarded the Pop Music as decadent. Well, I wanted to be decadent.

… within three months I learned to down eight pints of Newcastle brown Ale in one evening …

Within three months I learned to down Eight Pints of Newcastle Brown in one evening

My first contact with Britain, was oddly enough with Newcastle-upon-Tyne and I was terribly excited to be the guest of the School of Physics, where I enjoyed the privilege of a visitor’s accommodation in a beautiful penthouse. This was all the more exciting as it was built by Sir Basil Spence an architect I much admired for his rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. I could not understand Geordie being spoken in the pubs and did not know what a pint was and neither could I drink more than half a pint, but within three months I learned to down eight pints of Newcastle brown Ale in one evening. I found the inhabitants friendly, although being called a pet took some time to get used to given my stuffy Marxist upbringing: – well some people were more equal then others back home.

In Newcastle I was asked by the University Librarian what language we spoke in Romania and if we had a language of our own, so I decided to start a crusade in the form of a One-man Festival of Romania to proselytise the Geordies about the virtues of Romanian culture. This attracted the attention of Tyne Tees TV who interviewed me live and made me overnight an unwitting hero within two months of my arrival in town.

… My greatest trouble in England arose from my refusal to give up my Romanian nationality. In retrospect this may seem bizarre …

In the meantime I got very worried about my finances, as the one pound a day grant was not stretching far enough so I applied for various research scholarships of which I got two in Canada and the United States and a Scholarship at Cambridge. I chose the latter because I liked the architecture and the gardens. I think I got the Scholarship against intense competition because I was quite relaxed about it as I could not imagine in my wildest dreams that I will ever succeed in being a postgraduate student at Cambridge, so I did not take my interview seriously and felt no angst about it.

Whilst at Cambridge I translated and published in Encounter Romanian poetry and wrote articles about Brancusi in the Cambridge Review. I also wrote the first bilingual French-English pamphlet with the History of Peterhouse, which was my College and I remembered asking my long suffering Tutor, who was a medieval Historian:

Peterhouse, Cambridge, College History by Constantin Roman

Did you wait 700 years for a Romanian to come along and write a History of Peterhouse?

In my second year I was elected President of the Graduate Society and managed to obtain new privileges, one of which was to be allowed to have the Society Dinners in the Combination Room. I also discovered in the College a portrait of Dewar, a scientist whom I admired in Romania and who was relegated to oblivion in the College cellars, so I granted him a place of honour in the Grad Soc Common Room, where it still hangs today (NB Since writing this piece the painting was moved to the first-floor stairwell leading to the Fellows Parlour).

My greatest trouble in England arose from my refusal to give up my Romanian nationality. In retrospect this may seem bizarre, especially that I was menaced on a number of fronts: by Securitate operatives masquerading as diplomats keen to end my flouting of socialist order and drag me back to Romania; by a prospective mother-in-law who refused to allow her daughter to marry me unless I accepted British citizenship; and by officials of the British Home Office who assumed that my desire to retain what I saw as my unalienable right of birth, my nationality, might stem from communist loyalties.

Afterwards Lord Goodman decided to champion my cause, writing to the head of the Home Office that I was a

man of impeccable character clearly determined to belong here and make a significant contribution to our national life.”

In retrospect I hope that I discharged myself honourably of Goodman‘s expectations as I gave generously my expertise in discovering oil and gas for Britain and batting for Britain abroad on the cultural and scientific front, especially in my native country – Romania.

The whole drift of this saga is best captured in memoirs recently published by the Institute o Physics in London  under the title Continental Drift – Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures.

Constantin ROMAN: A History of Plate Tectonics at Madingley Rise, Cambridge

http://www.constantinroman.com/continentaldrift/

http://www.movinghere.org.uk/stories/story12/story12.htm?identifier=stories/story12/story12.htm

Dept of Geophysics at Cambridge where Romanian Plate Tectonics and "Buffer Plates" were born

“Mad Rise” was short for “Madingley Rise” the address of the Dept of Geodesy and Geophysics at Cambridge University in England. This History of Mad Rise may sound like a Gibbon-like attempt in the History of Geophysics at Cambridge, whose research had a huge impact on the Earth Sciences worldwide. This is a richly illustrated book presented in a superb graphic form.
Its author, Carol Williams has the reputation of being a consummate Indexer of Geophysical papers and also a lady with a penchant for playing with boats: hence her bouncing back, at regular intervals, like a sea buoy, in the existence of the Marine Geophysics Group at Cambridge. The reader of this magnificent opus will not be disappointed therefore to be treated to the detailed life of scientists working at Mad Rise , their foibles and obsessions. This narrative is punctuated by spicy anecdotes, underscored by turf skirmishes, as one might expect of talented people with big egos and unflinching self-confidence. One such instance is illustrated by the case of Sir Gerald Lenox-Conyngham, for 26 years head of department, when being asked, by a Fellow of Trinity College to explain how he came about to be appointed a Reader in Geodesy when in fact he had only a military background in India , Sir Gerald had answered:

because I invented Geodesy!

Well, Aristotle might have had some reservations about it, but then may Sir Gerald be forgiven for missing on a Classics education at the Woolwich Academy. Such an unforgivable lack of a classic education caused Sir Gerald’s signal contribution to Science in general and Cambridge in particular never to be acknowledged with a professorship or some other distinction: he remained an outsider in an otherwise self-centered world.
At this point I must come clean and register a personal interest in Carol’s book, as I am, several times over, a cousin-in-law of Lenox-Conyngham, which is the reason why I bought this expensive volume and not only – one other reason was to discover that special pedigree which all respectable Cambridge Geophysicists take pride in, namely their direct academic lineage to Sir Isaac Newton‘s School of Physics

…
Last but not least I am bound to be nostalgic about that last chapter in Carol’s book which I witnessed at “Mad Rise” as the last PhD student of Sir Edward Bullard. Teddy, a successor of Sir Gerald’s, remained the last towering Head o the Department of Geophysics before it was diluted with Geology and Mineralogy to become the current Department of Earth Sciences. Teddy was always unconventional and enthusiastic about new ideas and steeled my resolve in querying the infallibility of Plate Tectonics dictum, such as the “rigidity” of litospheric Plates in Persia, Tibet and Sinkiang – hence the birth, at Mad Rise, during the early 1970s, of the revolutionary concept of “non-rigid plates”, or “Buffer Plates”: four decades on this new concept gained international acceptance from an otherwise a very conservative and sometimes begrudging profession.

Photo above showing Constantin ROMAN who was Teddy Bullard’s last PhD student in Cambridge, describing, in his rooms at Peterhouse, the extent of the newly-defined Buffer Plates behind the Himalayas, results which he published in the New Scientist and the Geophysical Journal. (Photo Cambridge Evening News, 1973)

Such iconoclastic exercise was not without its dangers in the ruthless rat race of the late 1960s – early 1970s and the chaps from Mad Rise know it too well. Carol Williams apologizes to her contemporaries for leaving out some of their seminal contribution and one must be forgiving and accept her plea in good faith, given the fact that one is compensated by huge helpings about some greats. Even Molly Wisdom is not forgotten: here the larger-than-life persona who, for twenty four years was a Departmental secretary, is afforded not less than seven entries, only to be dispatched variously as a “part-time typist”, a “former opera singer” (with a “shrill voice”…), “chairing” the Common Room table during coffee breaks… It seems as if Molly’s shrewd judgment of human frailties was too close for comfort to some who considered the Department as their sole preserve.

Photo illustration above showing Teddy Bullard, Head of the Geophysics Deopt and his Secretary, Molly Wisdom, at the wedding reception in Cambridge given by Constantin ROMAN, Teddy’s last PhD student in Cambridge. Teddy was immensely supportive and encouraged Roman in defining his  concept of “non-rigid litospheric plates” or “Buffer Plates“.

Dan P. Mckenzie, another of Bullard’s students, has generously produced the Preface, the Postface, his raft of scientific papers, reminiscences, his youthful portrait, and more, leaving poor Sir Isaac Newton with the consolation prize of “second best”. But then we suspect that we shall soon benefit from a second edition, where all these `other details left out’ will be included – a thankless task to which I will subscribe. Not bad at all for a first edition, Carol: I give you three out of five.

The History of Geophysics at Cambridge - a good complement to Carol William's book on Madingley Rise

Continental Drift – Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures

SFIDAREA IDIOCRATIEI

Constantin ROMAN

Prefata Acad. Prof. John F. DEWEY (Oxford si California)

Centre for Romanian Studies, London, 2010

(Recenzie – Partea III)

SFIDAREA IDIOCRATIEI

Pe parcursul cartii urmarim autorul desprinzandu-se dintr-un regim totalitar de opresiune absurda si ajungand pana la varful celei mai inalte si distinse piramide de invatamant din Anglia. Din aceasta coliziune de culturi atat de diferite ies niste scantei de o bogatie si o frumusete spirituala  pasionanta.

Iarasi il gasim mai departe in numeroasele lui vizite din Europa: Franta, Italia, Belgia, Olanda, Luxembourg, Germania si Irlanda, cu ocazia prezentarii unui articol stiintific, al unor cercetari seismologice, sau, alergand dupa o fiinta fermecatoare. Ori si care ar fi fost motivul sau locul acestor peregrinari dintr-odata ne dam seama de niste paralele, pe masura ce muzeele, galeriile si panoramele arhitectonice ale catedralelor si metropolelor isi desvaluie perspectivele, isi deschid ferestrele si comorile, adeseori comparate sau reflectate intr-o oglinda romaneasca plina de nostalgie.

Dar din tot acest cadru, cel mai important apocalips este reprezentat de un fapt inevitabil de care incepe sa isi dea seama si anume neputinta de a se intoarce in Romania si in consecinta imperativul de a se stabili in Anglia. Ori, mai intai, aceasta cerere ii este refuzata, intru cat in calitatea sa de student Constantin Roman a primit doar o viza de sedere temporara in Anglia cu ingradiri specifice acestei categorii. De aici porneste o lunga campanie la care se alatura prieteni si cunostiinte din elita stiintifica si politica a Angliei care incearca sa sprijine cererea studentului roman, personalitati care cer autoritatilor britanice si romane sa faca o exceptie.

Lord Goodman (1973), by Graham Sutherland (1903-19280. Tate Gallery

Celebra printre aceste scrisori ramane epistola lordului Goodman, avocatul primului ministru britanic Harold Wilson si negociatorul international in problema Rodeziei, scrisoare adresata ministrului de interne britanic in care face aluzie, in mod hiperbolic la posibilitatea unei razmerite la Cambridge, daca acest caz nu s-ar rezolva in mod satisfacator. Iar ca si cum aceste dificultati ne fiind suficiente, in mod ironic la ele se mai adauga si greutatile nestavilite  puse in calea planurilor sale matrimoniale de catre o viitoara soacra care se opune cu indarjire perspectivei unei casatorii.

In ciuda acestui purgatoriu neanticipat, cartea, care  pe tot parcursul narativului pastreaza un stil optimist,  nu  are deloc ca obiectiv inventarul exaustiv si precis al unor acceptari stoice ale greutatilor intampinate, ci mai degraba desvaluirea refuzului obdurat de a accepta absurdul. Aceasta pozitie  rezulta inevitabil in ciocniri de proportii Quixotice, de unde titlul editiei romanesti de “Sfidarea Idiocratiei”. Ori cand aceasta sfidare se transforma in situatii comice, comparabile cu o adevarata  Commedia dell’Arte,  desnodamantul ei trebuie sa fie un model altor hedonisti. Caci de fapt, in adancul sufletului, Constantin ROMAN ramane  un hedonist: nici o  placere cat de simpla nu este ocolita, iar in aceasta cavalcada vitalizanta, doar gastronomia intrece pasiunea pentru stiinta si arta. Ori nu exista nici o experienta care stimuleaza papilele gustative, nici o bucata delicioasa demna de ghidurile gurmande cele mai rafinate, care sa fi scapat atentiei autorului. Aceasta predilectie, ca sa nu o numim, pur si simplu, o obsesie, conduce inevitabil la refuzul unui important post, la care autorul a postulat la Haga, cu care ocazie, meniul baroc  consumat  iesise din limitele conventiilor birocratice. Explicatia acestei slabiciuni, acestei obsesii pentru gastronomie autorul o pune pe seama memoriei a mai multor generatii de stramosi – tarani infometati si mai recent, sub regimul comunist, a cozilor interminabile pentru painea ce de toata zilele.

Ca si gastronomia placerea infinita care rezulta din admirarea arhitecturii, picturii si ale gradinilor care il inconjoara la Cambridge  reprezinta un fundal mereu prezent:  aceste toate formeaza un comentariu, ca un hemiciclu, sau o tema muzicala, o reflectie permanenta a fiecarei miscari, o bucurie pe care autorul o impartaseste pe indelete cu cititorul, pe masura ce  intoarce paginile cartii.

NOTA:

Mai multe detalii despre “Sfidarea Idiocratiei” se afla la linkul:

http://www.constantinroman.com/continentaldrift/

SFIDAREA IDIOCRATIEI

(Partea II -  Recenzie)

Constantin ROMAN

Prefata Acad. Prof. John F. DEWEY (Oxford si California)

Centre for Romanian Studies, London, 2010

MAREA INITIERE

Din fericire insa, si in paralel, perioada aceasta sociala tulbure a coincis si cu marile descoperiri de la Cambridge din domeniul astrofizicii (Fred Hoyle), ale biologiei moleculare (Crick si Watson) precum si ale Tectonicii Globale (Bullard, Vine si Matthews). In cadrul de mai sus, influenta care a avut-o atmosfera de la Cambridge in dezvoltarea gandirii lui Constantin ROMAN este de necontestat.

Pe vremea cand a plecat, cu un entuziasm tineresc, din Romania doar pentru o  scurta vizita de o luna in strainatate,  el nu a putut banui caracterul permanent al acestui voiaj, greutatile neasteptate intalnite in Occident, lipsit de sprijinul familiei si avand doar un geamantan, un teanc de carti de vizita si o bancnota de cinci lire in buzunarul noului costum de haine.

La Paris, profesorul Thellier de la Institut de Physique du Globe i-a oferit un loc de doctorant, insa in luna Mai 1968 metropola franceza nu era locul cel mai linistit pentru continuarea unor studii stiintifice. Mai mult decat atata. el a fost descurajat sa mearga in aceasta directie chiar de catre amabsadorul roman de la UNESCO, caruia Roman i-a solicitatsprijinul pentru a obtine prelungirea vizei  de intoarcere in Romania, viza care expirase in timpul grevelor feroviare de la Paris. Ambasadorul Valentin Lipatti, fratele pianistului, a calificat incercarea tanarului roman de a face un doctorat in Occident drept:

“o optiune politica a carei persepectiva, in cel mai fericit caz, nu ar fi rezultat  decat in aceea de a ajunge  chelner de restaurant”.

Intelegand atitudinea oficial intransigenta si fiindu-i teama de a se intoarce in tara cu o viza expirata Constantin ROMAN totusi nu a fost afectat de acest sfat nesasteptat si gratuit si s-a hotarat in schimb sa postuleze pentru o bursa de doctorat in Anglia. Bursa castigata prin concurs  la Peterhouse, cel mai vechi colegiu din Cambridge, infiintat in 1284, i-a permis lui ROMAN sa inceapa disertatia de Tectonica Globala. Aceasta a facut-o sub conducerea  unui om de un mare prestigiu international, profesorul academician Sir Edward Bullard, urmasul direct al lui Newton, printr-un sir neintrerupt de savanti fizicieni de la Thompson, Rutherford, Kelvin si Cavendish – toti facand parte din celebrul Laborator universitar – the Cavendish Laboratory.  Colaborarea cu Bullard i-a oferit tanarului Roman o mostenire stiintifica de o valoare incomparabila prin gandirea originala, capacitatea de a defini esentialul, de a analiza, extrapola si de a deduce, dar mai ales de a pune in balanta anumite adevaruri stiintifice, de a le modifica si a le redefini.

Dar mai presus decat toate acestea, curiozitate lui innascuta i-a dat bice cunoasterii dincolo de limitele geofizicii si ale tectonicii globale. In curand  cautarea s-a intins repede, ca o vita de vie impletind lingvistica, istoria arhitecturii, critica de arta, fizica aplicata la istoria artei si arheologie, poezia, jurnalistica si promovarea artei si culturii romanesti.

Acad.  Sir Edward Bullard, mentorul si seful meu de lucrari din departamentul de Geofizica de la Cambridge, la o receptie impreuna cu secretara facultatii (1973)

Cu timpul, si in cursul multor voiajuri la colocvii si conferinte internationale, la prelegeri ca invitat al universitatilor din Anglia si din Europa, efectul acumularii unor impresii, al unor observatii,  al unor analize si a unei intuitii au  rezultat intr-o alta necesitate si anume aceea de a modifica insasi teoria Tectonicii Globale, care era chiar subiectul tezei sale de doctorat. El a resimtit nevoia de a transforma aceasta teorie intr-un model mai coerent care sa includa noi categorii de placi litosferice, nerigide, care le-a denumit placi tampon (buffer plates) precum si sa defineasca doua noi placi litosferice in Asia Centrala si anume placile Tibet si Sinkiang, amandoua cuprinse acum in marea placa a Eurasiei, prin coliziunea cu placa Indiei si ridicarea lantului alpin al Himalaiei.

Aceste rezultate au fost imediat publicate in reviste academice ce au facut ocolul lumii si cativa savanti au salutat la randul lor in alte carti si reviste de specialitate aceasta noua contributie care si-a facut ecoul din Franta si Statele Unite pana   in China, dar nu si in Romania, unde cenzura lui Ceausescu, prin terorismul sau cultural sistematic, impunea o conspiratie a tacerii: aflandu-se in exil, omul de stiinta roman nu avea dreptul sa existe ca atare in tara lui de bastina. De fapt chiar nici dupa caderea dictaturii comuniste, embargoul stiintific impus de cenzura lui Ceausescu nu s-a schimbat ramanand in mainile aceluias cerc de beneficiari ca si inainte. Din fericire, conceptul placilor litosferice nerigide, imaginat pentru prima oara de un Roman la Cambridge a fost adoptat ca un model clasic in practica de specialitate din universitatile Americane si straine si din Institutiile de cercetare din Occident, devenind un truism universal acceptat.

Dar in ciuda acestor vexatii, gandindu-ne retrospectiv observam ca nu exista totusi nici o contradictie in fenomenul de integrare al Romanilor, in particular a lui Constantin ROMAN in hegemonia gandirii si culturii occidentale. Un sir intreg de nume ilustre ne vin in minte daca ne gandim doar la cativa dintre predecesorii lui desradacinati, printre care Constantin Brancusi despre care se pomeneste adesea in carte, dar si despre Emil Cioran, Eugen Ionescu, Virgil Gheorghiu, Mircea Eliade, Dinu Lipatti, George Enescu, Panaït Istrati, Marta Bibescu, Elena Vacarescu, Ana de Noailles, Elvira Popescu, Tristan Tzara, care toti au facut din Franta tara lor adoptiva. Acestia ar fi doar cativa si lista s-ar putea continua, caci nu este deloc intamplator ca Romania, mai mult decat ori si ce alta tara europeana sa aiba o elita sociala si intelectuala impregnata de gandirea si limba franceza. Si totusi, in pofida acestui fapt, iata inca un alt exemplu al acestei dualitati prin care Constantin Roman isi alege nu Franta, ci Anglia ca tara sa adoptiva. Aici, pentru el nimic nu este mai natural decat de a frecventa si de a se imprieteni cu eminenti contemporani ai sai, printre care se numara Academicianul Joseph Needham,  Profesorul L.C. Knights, Lordul Adrian, Ambasadorul Sir Duncan Wilson, Lordul Goodman, colectionarul Jim Ede, criticul literar George Steiner, istoricii Sir Herbert Butterfield,  Sir Denis Brogan, sau Maurice Cowling.

Cambridge Review, revista la care studentul Constantin Roman a contribuit un articol de fond despre Mitul romanesc in sculptura lui Brancusi si mai multe traduceri de poezii romanesti.

Daca privim cu atentie, alte doua contraste din viata lui ROMAN, acestea devin mai putin contradictorii decat la prima vedere: activitatea paralela de geofizician expert, consilier in probleme internationale ale explorarii petroliere cu acela de publicist si impresar. Se stie ca inainte de razboi, industria americana si britanica de petrol au avut o mare influenta in Romania si este placut de mentionat faptul ca primele sale traduceri de poezii din franceza si engleza, articolele de istoria artei si contactele cu exegetii lui Brancusi, Constantin Roman le-a facut  in perioada cand era student  la Institutul de Petrol si Gaze din  Bucuresti, iar mai tarziu, la Cambridge cursul de limba romana si analiza statistica de lingvistica romaneasca, traducerile de poezie romaneasca, articolele despre Brancusi si expozitiile de arta si cultura romaneasca de la Cambridge, Londra si Newcastle au fost facute si organizate in paralel cu studii stiintifice de seismo-tectonica din Vrancea si Hindu-Kush, articole publicate in prestigioase reviste internationale printre care Nature, New Scientist, Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, precum si in sfarsit, dar mai ales teza lui de doctorat Seismo-Tectonics of the Carpathians and the Central Asia, publicata, mai tarziu la Bucuresti in doua volume de catre Institutul Geologic al Romaniei, cu o prefata al academicienilor Gheorghe Udubasa, directorul Institutului si respectiv Mircea Sandulescu, seful sectiei de Geonomie a Academiei Romane (1998).

Dar desi, din fericire, aceste contributii stiintifice esentiale pentru geofizica romaneasca si internationala in domeniul tectonicii globale nu au fost complet ignorate in textul cartii, modelele si teoriile stiintifice care au constituit reputatia stiintifica a lui Constantin ROMAN au doar o pondere redusa in parcursul cartii. De fapt in narativ aceste aspecte reprezinta doar materia prima al acestor teorii, chiar insasi autobiografia autorului, ele oglindesc calatoriile, aventurile, initierile diverse si reactiile de multe ori impartasite intr-un mediu uneori neprielnic si care, la inceput, din cauza unei lipse de experienta a vietii el nu a fost pregatit sa le inteleaga. Si totusi aceste reactii diferite si de-a dreptul fascinante reprezinta prin ele insile o experienta insolita si mereu proaspata.

Dar mai mult decat de aceste decoruri el se intereseaza de oameni si de situatii noi, fie descriind receptia de la colegiul Peterhouse data Primului Ministru Edward Heath, picnicul din gradina episcopului de Ely, caruia Constantin ROMAN i se adreseaza cu modul de apelatie ortodox de “Prea-Fericit”, lucru neauzit pana atunci, sau de dineul oficial de la colegiul Magdalene ca invitat al lui Robert Latham, directorul bibliotecii Pepys, consultatia cu Lordul Goodman,  cocktailul cu profesorul acad. Joseph Needham,  seara de poezie romaneasca de la colegiul Churchill, cu George Steiner,  cina cu profesorul  L.C. Knights, critic literar si exeget al lui Shakespeare,  expozitia de fotografii Brancusi de la facultatea de arhitectura organizata la invitatia profesorului Sir Leslie Martin, celebrul arhitect al ansamblului Royal Festival Hall, de pe malul Tamisei,  initierea in arta contemporana la muzeul “Kettle’s Yard”, de catre colectionarul si criticul de arta  Jim Ede, prieten al lui Brancusi, sau de convorbirile cu bizantinologul Sir Steven Runciman si cu istoricul Sir Herbert Butterfield despre Nicolae Iorga, sau cu fostul ambasador britanic la Moscova, istoricul Sir Duncan Wilson, rectorul colegiului Corpus Christi.

Continuare in Sfidarea Idiocratiei (Partea III):

http://www.romanianstudies.org/content/2010/02/sfidarea-idiocratiei-constantin-roman-prefata-john-f-dewey-recenzie-partea-iii/