Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Romanian: Universitatea de Medicină și Farmacie „Carol Davila”) or University of Medicine and Pharmacy Bucharest, commonly known by the abbreviation UMFCD, is a public health sciences university in Bucharest, Romania. It is one of the largest and oldest institutions of its kind in Romania. The university uses the facilities of over 20 clinical hospitals all over Bucharest.

University History

Carol Davila was a prestigious Romanian physician of Italian ancestry. He studied medicine at the University of Paris, graduating in February 1853. In March 1853, he arrived in Romania. He was the organiser of the military medical service for the Romanian Army and of the country's public health system.

In 1857, Davila, in collaboration with Nicolae Crețulescu, founded the university, at which time it was known under the name of the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy. In the same year, the foundation stone of the University Palace in Bucharest was laid. It was due to Carol Davila's many activities that several scientific associations appeared in Romania: the Medical Society (1857), the Red Cross Society (1876), and the Natural Sciences Society (1876). With his assistance, two medical journals entered print: the Medical Register (1862) and the Medical Gazette (1865).

On 12 November 1869, it was established the Faculty of Medicine of Bucharest, incorporated in the University of Bucharest. The first doctoral degrees were granted in 1873, and the doctoral degree became the de facto graduation in 1888.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to George Emil Palade, described as "the most influential cell biologist ever", who had studied at the University of Carol Davila and later served as a Professor and Head of the Department of Human Biology and Physiology.

The School of Pharmacy was founded in 1889 as part of the Faculty of Medicine. In 1923, it was separated and it became the Faculty of Pharmacy.

The Faculty of Pharmacy of Carol Davila University is the place where insulin was isolated for the first time by Nicolae Paulescu in 1921, leading to a controversy in the awarding of the 1923 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

In 1948, the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy were separated from the University of Bucharest, and incorporated as the Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy. In the same year, the postgraduate Clinical Dentistry Institute was incorporated into the Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy as the Faculty of Dentistry.

In 1991, the Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy changed its name to the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

The Faculty of Medicine was first established in 1867, so that, according to the decree accompanying this decision, “the existing departments of the secondary school of medicine became faculty departments starting with the 1867-1868 academic year”, and “the tenured professors of these departments holding the academic title of Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) became faculty professors”.

In 1873, the first Ph.D. thesis defense took place at the Bucharest Faculty of Medicine. By 1888, concurrently with Ph.D. theses, 19 license theses were defended. As of the 1885 academic year, the faculty no longer accepted students without a baccalaureate diploma, and after 1888 the graduates were required to defend a thesis, thus obtaining the title of Doctor of Medicine and Surgery.

The year 1887 prefaced a new stage in the development of the Bucharest Faculty of Medicine, representing a memorable date in the history of Romanian science. In that year, three distinguished scholars were summoned as professors in charge of main departments of the faculty: Victor Babes (1854-1926), one of the great bacteriologists and morphopathologists of his era; George Assaky (1855-1899), founder of the school of experimental surgery, and Nicolae Kalinderu (1832-1902), an eminent clinician, and pioneer of the morphoclinical orientation in Romanian medicine.

After 1890, several notable scholars joined the teaching staff of the Bucharest Faculty of Medicine; in 1895, Thoma Ionescu (1860-1926), founder of modern Romanian surgery and innovator in the field of spinal anesthesia, was appointed professor of topographic anatomy and surgical clinic; in 1899, Gheorghe Marinescu (1863-1938), founder of the Romanian school of neurology; in 1901, Ion Cantacuzino (1863-1934), bacteriologist, biologist, immunologist and epidemiologist, as well as initiator of the Romanian school of experimental medicine.

After World War One, the departments of the Faculty of Medicine were represented by other important figures which helped consolidate the reputation of the faculty. Among these, we mention: Professor Ion Nanu Muscel (1862-1938), clinician and school founder; Anibal Theohari (1873-1933), creator of experimental therapeutics and balneology; Professor Ernest Juvara (1870-1933), innovator in surgical and instrumental technique; Professor Alexandru Obregia (1860-1937), who elaborated the science of psychiatry; Professor Mina Minovici (1858-1933), founder and scientific organizer of legal medicine in Romania; Francisc Rainer (1874-1944), erudite anatomist and anthropologist; Constantin I. Parhon, promoter of endocrinology and biochemistry; Dimitrie Bagdasar (1863-1946), forefather of the school of neurosurgery; Constantin Ionescu-Mihaiesti (1883-1962), representative of the Romanian school of microbiology, organizer of serum production practices, one of the founders of the “Dr. I. Cantacuzino” Institute.