Geology, a School for Life

 

 

Dear students in geology and geophysics,

I address you a warm fellow greeting, with honest and deep appreciation for the scientific field you represent – geology and geophysics – is honoured today by a large scientific event. It is a good sign of the future we desire that we can meet so many young faces, students in geology and geophysics topday in this hall. There is no bigger pride for the Romanian geology and geophysics faculties but their former students success on national and international level, both in the field they had graduated from and from other activities.

During the last two decades, Liberty and Democracy have brought about a new issue: the difficulty of choice. It is often said and with a base that to choose is even more important than the choice made. The courage to choose and the strength to want to find out what you can be are essential in a world where the future cannot be predicted in detail, but whose main lines we can anticipate, inclusiding as potential dangers and risks. That is why I believe that the most important message I will transmit you is „Be yourselves” or, more precisely „Become yourselves”.

The time you spend within the university represents the rights moment to make yourselves a formation not only as future graduates in a certain field, but especially as people. It is obviously an important thing to be well prepared for the profession one has chosen, and from my experience, I can assert that profession never betrays you. Fortune, money, positions – you can lose then anytime. People, sometimes those you have believed in, often betray you. The profession never does it. It is essential to master yourself, your knowledge and your value.

Along with good professional knowledge one also need the ability to anticicpate and a positive vision upon life. Upon life generally and upon your own life.

I have always told my students that, in order to be a goo prospector, it is not enough to be very intelligent, it is not enough to be very well qualified in your fiels. You need to be sure that you will discover something through searching. If you’ve got this certainty and a positive attitude when acting your activity, maybe you will not find what you are looking for, but you wil certainly find something. Even though nobody can see the world of tomorrow, with its fast change that surprises you sometimes, we need to hold the capability to distinguish what is good and and important for the progress.

Compared to our short biological history, rocks, ores or fossil fuels have not been changed.

Except the volcanos eruptions and the earthquakes that belong to the hazard geology, the rocks, the oresor the fossile fuels have known little changes taking into account our short biological history. We have changed and we can read more and more information from their site. They remain a pretious witness of the earth history and, if we know to ask the right questions, we will obtain quality answers. However, we also owe more to geology and to the geophysics: a certain way to be and to apprehend the world. These sciences teach us how to avoid final decisions and how to approach our planet mysterious and profound nature with care and respect.

Dear students, I wish you not to forget that intelligence without character is, as they say, „a burden and not a blessing”.

Science has not promised us either richness or hapiness. It promises the truth.

If we will know to look for it with passion and skill, we will be able to build both our wealth and our hapiness. 

It is vital for us to believe, to believe in something. You and your successes represent the strongest argument to prove the truth that Romania has a future Romanians deserve to fight for, to work for and to send their offsprings to learn.

Trust your forces, trust your profession and do not forget the professors who have taught you the knowledge through science and education for life.