The National Institute for Materials Physics ( NIMP) Bucharest is devoted to fundamental and applied research and development, with particular emphasis in the fields of solid state physics and materials research. NIMP develops as a CENTER OF EXCELLENCE for international cooperation (R&D projects and networks with support for EU, bilateral agreements) and high-level education (PhD, MSc, training courses) and provides a frame for interdisciplinary research in the materials science. The institute management has tried deliberately to develop a balanced policy of basic and application-oriented research. Much effort was devoted to the applied research, devices and technologies based on new advanced materials. The NIMP finances the major part of its activities through National R&D Programs included in PNCDI, promoted by the Romanian Ministery for Education and Research (MEC). However, a part of the activity of the Institute is financed through an important number of academic grants and projects funded by EU programmes. The institute has presently about 234 workers, of which 186 are directly involved in research activities. NIMP has 150 researchers, and among them are 15 PhD supervisors, 96 doctors, 40 PhD students, and 12 Master students. 30 of the Institute researchers have experience in laboratories abroad, gained during long stages.   Goals :

• The preparation, characterization and study of the physical properties of new materials connected to high technology products and devices
• The development of analytical techniques and methods applied in materials science.
• Training of young scientists, PhD and MSc students,students and technicians.
• Supply the public institutions and companies with the Institute.s R&D know-how and expertise.
• Collaboration with the universities and other higher education establishments.
• Development of international collaboration, especially based on EU funded projects.

History

The Institute of Physics of the Romanian Academy was established in 1949. Its founding father, Horia Hulubei (PhD in Paris under Nobel Prize winners Jean Perrin and Marie Curie) is a world famous scientist for his outstanding results in various areas of physics, including RAMAN, X rays, Compton, atomic and nuclear physics. In 1956, the Physics Institute of the Academy splits, according to a political decision, into an Institute of Atomic Physics (IFA), located at Magurele and the Bucharest Institute of Physics (IFB), based initially at the Faculty of Physics in the old edifice of the Bucharest University, and later in a building at 114 Calea Victoriei Street. The head of this Institute, Acad. Prof. E. Badarau, former Professor at Sankt Petersburg and Cernautzi Universities, was a promoter of Romanian school of physics, being actively implied in the electrical discharges in gases and plasma studies. In 1969 the Bucharest Institute of Physics has moved in a new and well equipped building in Bd. Pacii 222. The Institute moved again in 1974, at the present location in Magurele Atomistilor 105bis. The Institute of Physics and Technology of Materials came into being in 1977 by the union of some laboratories belonging to the Bucharest Institute of Physics and the Institute of Atomic Physics (IFA-Bucharest).The actual name (National Institute of Materials Physics-NIMP) was given in 1996 after a national accreditation procedure (re-accreditation in 2008). Among important personalities which have been active in the Institute during the last fifty years we must mention: Acad. Eugen Badarau, Acad. Radu Grigorovici, Acad. Ioan Iovitz Popescu, Acad. Margareta Giurgea, Acad. Rodica Manaila, Acad. Vladimir Topa and others (see also OUTSTANDING LEADERS AND SCIENTISTS ). A succession of directors, including Viorel Visarion, Pompiliu Nicolau, Andrei Mezincescu, Alexandru Glodeanu , Danila Barb, Mircea Morariu, Alexandru Aldea , and Stefan Frunza, headed the Institute in the years from 1990 to 2008. Lucian Pintilie took over as general director of NIMP in December 2008.