Neculai Costăchescu

Neculai Costăchescu (18 February 1876–14 July 1939) was a Romanian chemist and politician.

Born in Huși, he obtained a degree in physics and chemistry from Iași University in 1901. Costăchescu earned a doctorate from the same institution in 1905, with a thesis on the gases found in Romania's salt deposits and muddy volcanoes; he was the university's first doctor in chemistry. He took specialty courses at the University of Zurich from 1906 to 1908, then was hired as professor of mineral chemistry at the Iași science faculty in 1912. There, he set up an organic chemistry laboratory. Thanks to his scientific activity, he was elected a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy in 1925, and was granted honorary membership in 1936.