Vol. XXXIX pp

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1 Trav. Mus. natl. Hist. nat. agrigore Antipa,, Vol. XXXIX pp DBcembre 1997 In memoriam Drnf nr Cli'7 A 11 T I IT TC M~TI I PR n mum. UL. uuun u VUIVU IVIVUUUI\ (27 July November 1997) In 6 November 1997, the universitary professor dr. Geza Julius Muller died, being in full scientific and didactical activity, the unexpected death tearing him amidst his colleagues, doctorands, students and family. Born in Cluj, Geza Julius Muller made his elementary school and secondary education in the same town and, during the period , he was student of the Faculty of Biology at the University "Victor Babe$", also

2 in Cluj, finishing as the best of his class. Being student, he was remarked by his scientific activity, showing a passion for the knowledge of the aquatic habitat, as a result having already three published papers when finishing his faculty. His thesis for B.Sc., an original work about the ichthyological fauna from the hydrographic network of Transylvania, was later published guided by Dr. doc. Petru Biiniirescu. From the same period it is his first important discovery, a fish species new for science, Scardinius racovitzai, living in the hot springs from Biiile 1 MaiIOradea. His passion for the study of life in water decided him to leave his native town, after finishing the faculty, for a scientific researcher employment in the Laboratory from Sulina (the Danube Delta) of the Institute of Biology belonging to the Romanian Academy, and a year later in the Laboratory of Marine Biology from Constanfa of the same Institute. He thus had the chance to be disciple of the distinguished Academician prof. Mihai Bgcescu, who was conducting this laboratory. Here, and afterwards in the Romanian Institute of Marine Researches (in which the laboratory was included in 1970), Geza Julius Miiller became later senior researcher, chief of laboratory and scientific secretary. In 1972 he obtained the title of doctor in biological sciences, for the speciality "Oceanology", conducted by Acad.prof.Mihai Bgcescu. In 1991 he began his didactic activity, at the University "Ovidius" from Constanla - Faculty of Natural Sciences, where he was named professor for the speciality "Zoology of the Invertebrates", and as complementary specialities "Basis of Ecological Environment Conservation" and "Biology of the Black Sea". As professor he received the right (in 1991) to conduct doctorates, for the speciality "Animal Taxonomy", having over 20 attendants for the doctor's degree, two of them having already sustained their thesis, with exceptional works. Having a profound and multilateral biological knowledge, Geza Julius Miiller studied the life in the aquatic environment under many complex aspects: taxonomy, ecology, zoogeography, mariculture, productivity and management of the resources of aquatic basins. A great importance for his formation were played by his specialisation courses in research institutes, having an outstanding international prestige: Helgoland, Wilhelmshaven, Hebraic university in Jerusalem and Biological Station Elat, Zoological Station of Napoli. For his research, he personally dived many times in the Black Sea, the Red Sea, the Northern Sea, or took part to the expedition organized in Tanzania (1973) by Acad. prof. Mihai Biicescu with the Museum of Natural

3 Prof. Dr. GEZA JULIUS MiJLLER ( ) 433 History "Grigore Antipa". He also organized expeditions on the Libyan continental platform ( ) or on the Somalian coast. From all these expeditions he collected not only a scientific material, but also a very rich museistical material, he offered in the first place to the "Grigore Antipa" National Museum of Natural History, but also to the Zoological Museum of the University from Cluj and to the Sea Museum from Constanfa. He thus received in 1993 the Jubilee Medal "Grigore Anti pa". In his 40 years of scientific activity he had a great contribution to the knowledge of the aquatic organisms. In the field of the taxonomy he made known the Nemertinea - a group scarcely known by the precedessors, identifying and describing in his thesis for dostorship 51 species from the Romanian waters of the Black Sea, where only 8 species were previously recorded! Among them 7 species were new for the science. Therefore he is the author of the chapter of Nemertinea in the monography, published at Kiew "Handbook of the invertebrates from the Black Sea and the Azov Sea". Among the Crustacea he described two new subspecies of Amphipoda and a new species of Mysidae - the last one in collaboration with Mihai B2cescu. He had a major contribution to the revised taxonomical inventory of all the benthic invertebrates of the Black Sea, 1700 taxons in all. Based on the material he offered to other specialists, 30 new species were described. 7 of them bearing his name - miilleri or muelleri, as a sign of gratitude. In the biogeographic domain he had a valuable contribution to the elaboration of the maps of repartition of the benthic biocoenosis on the Romanian continental platform, and he esteblished later their correspondence with the littoral system of the Marmara Sea. In Eastern Mediterranean Sea, the North-African coast, he established and made the first maps of the benthal bionomy on a zone of over 600 km of the continental platform, between Benghazi and Tobruk. He thus clarified, for the first time, the influence of the presence of the penetration elements from the Senegalian province from the subtropical Atlantic and the repartition area of the Erythreic elements, which came through the Suez Canal, and were superposed over the autochthonous elements. The biogeographic analysis of the benthic fauna of the Black Sea and the Azov Sea allowed him to ellaborate a synthesis and to establish the

4 biogeographic regions, a system which was recognised and accepted on an international plan. He proved the sympatric way of speciation in the case of some fish genera having an Indo-West Pacific repartition, such as Luftjanus, Lethrinus, Platosus and Amblygaster, not known before his research. In the field of the marine and fresh-water ecology, he studied the phytophilous fauna. In the case of the Nemertinea, making studies of compared anatomy, correlated with the nature of the substrate, he established the relation between the evolution degree of some species and the physical complexity of the substrate. He had a great contribution to the knowledge of the dynamic ecology and the productivity of the main benthic associations of the Black Sea. The complex work he co-ordinated, with the results of the expeditions from the Libyan waters (physico-chemical conditions, phytoand zooplankton, benthos and ichthyofauna) was considered by J.Y.Cousteau as the most complete regional study ever made in the Mediterranean Sea. Through the research programmes he co-ordinated, he had valuable contributions to the applied ecology in the domains of fish economy, limnology, mariculture. By a laboriously synthetical study, he estimated the primary productivity of hole the aquatorium of the World-wide Ocean, correlated with the structure of the fish-captures, making conspicuous the unexploited trophic reserves and the available potential. He thus elaborated a prognosis and recommendations for the orientation and the development of the Romanian oceanic fishing, on geographic zones and the qualitative structure of the captures. A confirmation of his scientific prestige is offered also by the fonctions he detained in important national and international organizations: President of the Oceanologic Commission of the Romanian Academy, Vice-president of the Hydrologic Commission and Aquatic Ecology, Vice-president of the Ecologic Society of Romania, member of the Ecologic Institute, an international organization from Oldendorf (Hamburg, Germany), member in the Benthos Committee of the International Commission for the scientific exploration of Mediterranean Sea (CIESMM). Geza Julius Miiller is the author of over 60 scientific papers, 10 of them having a monographic character. His last appeared work was "The

5 Prof. Dr. GEZA JULIUS M~~LLER ( ) 435 illustrated Guide-book of the flora and the fauna of Romania" (in rom.), vol. I, that he did not only co-ordinate but also illustrated for about 50%. The vol. 11, concerning the fresh-waters, where he had also a great contribution, is in the press. His great erudition was doubled by a real didactic vocation and a great generosity. He had a true joy to guide the young ones on the way of the research, and was always surrounded with a wide circle of students, doctorands, colleagues, who found every time a competent advice or the literature of speciality (monographs, fundamental treaties which may not be found in any library in Romania and were got by him with great costs. The Romanian biology lost, by the premature disappearance of Geza Julius Miiller, a great personality, and his students and colleagues a wonderful teacher and friend. VICTORIA TIGANU$