An interview with Professor Dr. Habil. Eng. Mihai Emilian Popa, a faculty member at the University of Bucharest’s Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, and a renowned paleobotanist was featured in the latest issue of the prestigious scientific journal „Nature”, published on Monday, January 27, 2025. The discussion focused on his teaching and research activities at the University of Bucharest.
As part of the „Where I Work” section, the article „How I find and explain plant fossils in Romania” , written by British journalist Christine Ro, explores Professor Popa’s discoveries and research on plant fossils in Romania.
Presented as a first-person testimonial, the piece highlights Professor Popa’s expertise in paleobotany, a career fuelled by passion but challenged by limited scientific resources and research equipment during Romania’s transitional period. He also had to adapt paleobotanical research to meet international academic standads, since it was still in its early stages in Romania.
„My office at the University of Bucharest, photographed here, has a library that I’ve been building since 1990, when I began studying paleobotany. Until 1989, when the Romanian dictator Nicola Ceaușescu was shot, exchanges with foreign countries were extremely difficult – so, in the 1990s, I had a lot of catching up to do to secure paleontological literature. Now my library has about 9,000 titles, mainly about plant systematics. More than half of the library is not available online yet, because paleobotany is a narrow field of research, and you have to rely on nineteenth-century books and articles”, explains Professor Mihai Emilian Popa.
In 1990, the paleobotanist decided to enhance his theoretical research with fieldwork. „I left Bucharest with my backpack and my boots to work as a coal miner in the Southern Carpathian Mountains. I began doing fieldwork, collecting samples such as fossils, rocks, and especially coal from deep exploitation chambers in these coal mines”, he recounts.
A major milestone in his career was purchasing an old house in the village of Bigăr, located in Caraș-Severin County (in the Anina Mountains of the Southern Carpathians). This rural settlement, surrounded by former mines, became a pivotal location for both his personal and professional journey.
„I had found my place. Anina was the colliery in Europe, with underground levels reaching 1,300 meters and over 120 kilometers of active tunnels—a vast, three-dimensional labyrinth. Mining began here in 1792, and the mine operated until its closure in 2006. I was fortunate to spend 16 incredible years working underground, in summer and winter, whenever duty called. Today, we know that Anina is a fossil-Lagerstätte—an extraordinary paleontological site preserving Jurassic plants, invertebrates, dinosaur tracks, and other fossilized vertebrates. From my very first descent, I was lucky enough to collect plant fossils, and my passion was sparked instantly. For anyone fascinated by geology and paleontology, an underground mine offers a rare and extraordinary glimpse into the Earth’s past. You just have to learn how to read its story, told through fossilized species, rock formations, and the intricate language of stratigraphy and paleoecology.
Working underground felt like navigating a vast block of Swiss cheese, as the galleries and shafts of Anina cut through the sedimentary formations of the Reșița Basin. It was an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he reflects on his first encounters with the geological heritage of southwestern Romania.
The „Nature” article highlights the importance of coal mines as key sites for discovering plant fossils, describing them as „true field laboratories”.
Bigăr, a historically significant mining site and one of Romania’s major collieries since the industrialization period, has been transformed into an „open-air classroom” for students from the University of Bucharest’s Faculty of Geology and Geophysics under Professor Popa’s guidance.
„This site in Bigăr has become a field laboratory. Every year, I teach a field course on geological mapping here. Now, I spend about three months a year in the field,” he explains.
He also emphasizes that paleobotanical research isn’t limited to mining areas rich in fossilized plant deposits and coal, and it can be conducted in the heart of major cities like Bucharest. Fossils aren’t confined to traditional excavation sites, they can appear in unexpected places, even subway stations. One remarkable example is „Politehnica” subway station, which preserves an entire Mesozoic ecosystem. The limestone slabs used to pave the platform contain fossilized Cretaceous organisms known as rudists, dating back to the Late Cretaceous period. Alongside rudists, the station’s floor also showcases gastropods, corals, stromatolites, and red algae. The paleontological setting of „Politehnica” subway station is unique in the world because the fossils are perfectly displayed for the public, right on the platform.
„These remnants of a 70-million-year-old marine ecosystem often go unnoticed by commuters, but for a paleobotanist, they offer a fascinating example of how geological heritage is woven into everyday life,” Professor Mihai Emilian Popa tells „Nature”.
So dedicated is Mihai Popa to his work that every semester, he holds hands-on lessons with students from the faculties of Geology and Geophysics, Geography, and Biology right on the „Politehnica” metro platform. He even created a one-of-a-kind project, „The Museum in Three Minutes” („Muzeul în trei minute”), which transforms the station into a paleontological museum. More details about this initiative can be found in the article „A Paleontology Lesson at the Subway” („Lecție de Paleontologie la metrou”) published on the University of Bucharest’s website.
Emilian Popa Named „Professor of the Year” at the University of Bucharest Senate Awards
At the end of 2021, Professor Mihai Emilian Popa received the Professor of the Year award in the Life and Earth Sciences category, as well as the overall „Grand Prize for Professor of the Year”, at the fifth edition of the University of Bucharest Senate Awards.
As Director of the Doctoral School at the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, he is actively involved in teaching, scientific research, and overseeing both national and international projects.
Professor Dr. Habil. Eng. Popa teaches courses in Paleobotany, Coal Deposit Geology, Principles of Ecology, Scientific Writing, Academic Ethics and Integrity, Scientific Writing and Career Development, and Palynology. He considers himself „an older colleague” to his students at the University of Bucharest, as well as those at Southwest Petroleum University in Chengdu, Sichuan, China, where he teaches similar courses.
Beyond his university work, he is deeply engaged in educational collaborations that promote geology as a field. Through the „Dilcher-Popa” Field Laboratory, he organizes courses for high school students who excel in international Earth science competitions, offering them firsthand experience in geological fieldwork.
His strong commitment to student engagement remains one of the defining aspects of his multidisciplinary career.
The scientific article published in „Nature” can be read here.
Image by Karl Mancini for Nature