Irinel Popescu (born 22 April 1953 ) is a Romanian surgeon, specialized in hepato-pancrato-biliary surgery, and a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy (since November 2013). In 2000, he introduced liver transplantation in Romania and in 2008, he also firstly brought robotic surgery to this country.

Career

Irinel Popescu was born in Filiași, Dolj County, graduated in 1977 the Faculty of Medicine at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest. After 1995, he took part in the construction of the Romanian organ transplantation program. In 1999, Popescu became Professor of Surgery at the Carol Davila UMF and Head of the Department of Surgery at the Fundeni Clinical Institute. In 2000, he obtained the certificates of the Ministry of Health of specialization in liver surgery and liver transplantation, oncological surgery, laparoscopic surgery, and medical management of health. Also in 2000, he introduced liver transplantation at the clinical level (the first successful surgeries on an adult, with a whole liver, and a child, with a fragment of a liver) in the Center for Digestive Diseases and Liver Transplantation Fundeni. Currently, the number of transplant surgeries has exceeds 1,000. He also had important contributions to establishing transplantation programs in the Republican Hospital in Chișinău (2013), the Sfânta Maria Hospital in Bucharest (2013), and the Sfântul Spiridon Hospital in Iași (2016). In 2006, he founded ARCHBPTH (Romanian Association of Hepato-bilio-pancreatic Surgery and Liver Transplantation). In 2008, Popescu introduced robotic surgery in Romania. Since 2012, he has been the Head of the Center for Digestive Diseases and Liver Transplantation – Fundeni Clinical Institute. In 2012, he won a European funded project for the construction of the Center of Excellence in Translational Medicine (CEMT) within the Fundeni Clinical Institute. The center was inaugurated in March 2016 with laboratories of pathology, molecular biology, cell cultures, a  tumor bank, and a laboratory of experimental surgery. As the coordinator of numerous research projects, he obtained the title of Scientific Researcher first degree (2019) and made important contributions to the genomics of pancreatic cancer and cholangiocarcinoma. Since 2016, he has been a professor in the School of Medicine at Titu Maiorescu University, where he established the Nicolae Cajal Medical Research Institute. In 2020, he was appointed Associated Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Dunărea de Jos University in Galați, Enna extension (Italy), and received the title of Professor Emeritus of Dunărea de Jos University (2020). He was also appointed Visiting Professor at the University of Belgrade (2019) and at the Nicolae Testemițanu State University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Chișinău, Moldova.

Selected Books

Published papers

Doctor Honoris Causa

Selected administrative appointements

Selected Awards and honors

Selected Medals