Iacob Iacobovici

Iacob Melcon Iacobovici (November 18, 1879 – October 9, 1959) was a Romanian surgeon of Armenian descent.

Biography

Origins and early career Born in Costești, Botoșani County, his family were peasants of Armenian origin who had arrived in the Moldavia region over a century earlier. His parents Melcon and Roza were poor, which meant that their son struggled materially as he passed through A. T. Laurian High School in Botoșani and the University of Bucharest's medical faculty. He graduated from the latter institution in 1905 with a thesis on fetal arteriology that he defended before professors Paul Petrini, Thoma Ionescu, Dimitrie Gerota, , and Dimitrie Drăghicescu. The work earned him a magna cum laude degree and a letter of commendation from Wilhelm von Waldeyer. While a student, he became an extern in 1901, an intern at in 1902, and an assistant in the anatomy department the same year.

In 1907, Iacobovici won a competition to become assistant to Ionescu at . In 1912, he became consulting physician at the same institution, as well as librarian of the medical faculty. He remained in Bucharest until 1919, taking part as a combat medic in the Second Balkan War and World War I. He wrote numerous scientific publications and proposed several new surgical techniques. In October 1919, following the union of Transylvania with Romania and the establishment of a medical faculty within the new University of Cluj, he was named head of the surgical clinic at Cluj, with the rank of full professor.

When Iacobovici arrived in Transylvania, there were almost no Romanian surgeons in the province, methods of surgery were obsolete and Romanian-language teaching materials were scarce. Starting under these conditions, he managed to train surgeons who developed departments throughout Transylvania and even in the former Old Kingdom. Among the types of operations in which he innovated were surgery for gastric ulcer, biliary bypass, tuberculosis, lumbar region, neurovegetative features and war wounds; as well as working on thyroid pathology, pulmonary exeresis and renal tumors.