ircea Manolescu is from Bucharest, Romania, a city
with many old, valuable, fragile buildings, situated
at the intersection of two seismic faults. In his early
years, he lived through a huge earthquake that devastated
Bucharest and other major cities in Romania in 1977.
As an engineer, Mircea studied in France, where he received
his PhD in construction’s equipment domain. While visiting
a friend in Romania, he found himself in an old apartment
building in the centre of Bucharest, in a building that was
predicted to fall in a future earthquake. Suddenly, the
building began vibrating and trembling. His first thought was:
“Earthquake! This is it!”
But it was only a heavy truck passing by.
In that moment, Dr. Manolescu asked himself for the very
first time, “What would I have needed in order to survive an
earthquake?” (He has asked himself the same question in his
work many times since.)
In the years that followed, he began developing innovative
solutions for just that purpose: The survival of major disasters
at home, in the office, at school and in industry. Some of
his solutions were concretized or transformed into different
inventions and presented to the most prestigious Exhibitions of
Inventions in the world, such as in Pittsburgh (the most important
inventions fair in the world), Geneva, Brussels, Bucharest, Taipei,
Seoul, and Moscow. He received many gold medals, first place
prizes, and merit diplomas for his innovations.
Dr. Manolescu was awarded the Gold Medal distinction at
INPEX Pittsburgh/ Pennsylvania (the largest invention contest
in the world), as well as the Outstanding Inventor diploma
by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (the highest
recognition in the world for inventors), the Merit of Inventors
in the Commander degree by the Mayor of Brussels (Belgium);
the Leonardo da Vinci medal, and the EMERCOM medal (from
the Emergency Situations Russian Federation Ministry), to
name just a few of his personal milestones.
He was elected the President of Romanian Institute for
Advanced Studies and Research Association, President of
RoBizArt Association, Vice President of the Romanian Forum
of Inventors, and Vice President of the Volunteer Rescuers for
the Emergency Situations Association from Romania.
In order to sustain and spread his work and research, Dr.
Manolescu has published many articles in professional
magazines from France and Romania, in Romanian publications
from the field of installations engineering, in the "Bible" of
constructions planners and builders, and in the Fire Department
publication, with the occasion of international conferences.
Today, Dr. Manolescu helps people prepare for the future
major earthquake and other disasters, and he has started
implementing his anti seismic protection systems in homes
and civil buildings, as well as in schools, universities, office
buildings, small companies, public administration buildings,
and industry buildings and factories. The National Bank
of Romania is protected with one of his systems, as well
as the Romanian Banks Institute, IBM headquarters, the
Knights Templar headquarters, The Traditional Scottish Rite
headquarters, and many other such places. He has been
interviewed by major channels and international publications,
appeared in numerous TV shows, including "The Professionals,"
a popular Romanian talk show, and continues to stay involved
in finding solutions for emergency situations that need his
expertise.