SIMION MEHEDIN I – FOUNDER AND ORGANISER OF MODERN ROMANIAN GEOGRAPHY

This year the Romanian geographers are commemorating 50 years since Simion Mehedin i (1868-1962), the founder of modern Romanian Geography, passed away. After having completed his studies in Paris, Berlin and Leipzig with Paul Vidal de la Blache, Ferdinand von Richthofen and Friedrich Ratzel, Mehedin i was nominated Professor of Geography at the University of Bucharest in 1890. In his fundamental work written in Romanian – Terra, Introduction to Geography as Science (1931) and in other of his writings, the Earth is viewed as a complex system within which the four planetary covers are interacting both in terms of static’s (spatial distribution) and dynamics. In his opinion the complex relationships among the four geospheres are reflected in such planetary circuits as regular winds and Ocean currents. Man is considered to be one of the most active agents increasingly more involved in changing the relationships among the geospheres, thereby radically influencing the evolution of the Earth System. Mehedin i was not only the founder of modern Romanian Geography but also the organiser and promoter of secondary and niversity studies of Geography