Nicolae Doniţă was born in Chişinău on November 20, 1929, into a family of intellectuals (his grandfather was a priest in Hirişeni, then in Răciula, and his father, Boris Doniţă, was a judge and later a lawyer at the Călăraşi Court).

He attended primary school in his hometown, and after 1940, when Romania was forced to cede significant parts of its territory with a predominantly Romanian population, he left Bessarabia and sought refuge with his family in the unbroken Romanian territory, where he continued his studies—high school in Turda, and between 1950–1955, courses at the Faculty of Forestry of the Forestry Institute in Braşov. The drama of uprooting was compounded by the danger of being expelled due to his social origin, considered “unhealthy” at the time, and fleeing from communism after the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia. He was saved by his college classmates who, knowing and appreciating him, unanimously refused to vote for a discriminatory act in the public session where his expulsion was discussed.

Shortly after graduation, following an internship at OS Sebiș in Arad County, in 1956, he was employed within the Forestry Collective of the Academy, on the recommendation of one of his professors, a well-known scientist, academician C.C. Georgescu. Here he began his research career under the guidance of Professor Sergiu Paşcovschi, a renowned researcher who described the types of forests in Romania. In the meantime, the Forestry Collective was integrated into the Biological Research Center, which later became the Institute of Biology of the Academy. The Forestry Collective was integrated into the Ecology Laboratory structure of the Institute. He worked alongside other recognized specialists in the fields of biological and forestry sciences: I. Popescu-Zeletin, Al. Beldie, I. Vlad, C. Chiriţă, Gr. Eliescu, At. Haralamb, Alice Săvulescu, Ana Paucă, Ev. Soroceanu Puşcariu, etc.

In 1971, forestry researchers from the Institute of Biology of the Academy were transferred to the Forest Research and Management Institute (ICAS), where a Forest Ecology laboratory was established. He became the head of this laboratory starting in 1975, until his retirement in 1997. He continued his research activities even after retirement, collaborating on numerous research projects conducted within the Forest Ecology Laboratory of ICAS. He obtained the title of Doctor in Agronomy, specializing in Forestry, at the Faculty of Forestry and Forest Exploitation of the University of Brasov, in 1970, with the thesis “Geobotanical and silvicultural research on the sledges of the Babadag Plateau”.

He received two professional training scholarships in Germany:

• 1970-1971, Alexander von Humboldt scholar at the Institute of Systematics and Geobotany of the University of Göttingen;
• 1985-1986, Alexander von Humboldt scholar at the Institute of Forestry of Baden-Württemberg.

He published as a sole author, main author, or co-author over 250 scientific papers, including 2 treatises (Forest Ecology, 1978; Ecosystem-Based Forestry, 1997), 30 books or book chapters, 12 of which were published by foreign publishers, 15 maps, 2 of which were published by foreign publishers, and 8 manuals or best practice guides. Over 200 of his scientific articles, many of which were published in foreign journals.

In over six decades of scientific activity, Professor Dr. Engineer Nicolae Doniţă has developed and distinguished himself as a prominent personality in the field of forestry sciences, a pioneer, school founder and trainer of specialists, has made and continues to make fundamental contributions to the growth and development of forestry science in our country, in areas of great importance such as: forest ecology, phytocenology, forest typology, forest cartography, forest biodiversity, and its conservation.

Source: Bucovina Forestieră