Honorary Citizen of my hometown, Alba Iulia! : “We are not the people we are born as, but the people we become through personal effort, collaboration and thanks to the beautiful people we surround ourselves with!”

I am honored to have been awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Alba Iulia — the symbolic city of the Union in Romania and a source of inspiration for Europe — as well as my beloved hometown.

This distinction recognizes the quality of my career in research and innovation in France, along with my contributions to the advancement of innovation strategies and tools. My work has complemented the theories of Nobel Prize laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen by introducing new approaches and instruments that enhance agility in innovation processes and organizational structures by integrating the “human factor” in the innovation processus and reducing or compensating the different typologies of “assymetries” I discovered during my research work at ONERA (the French NASA) – Office National d’Etudes et Recherches Aerospatiales.

I am notably the author of the Demand Readiness Level (DRL) — a framework that complements NASA’s Technology Readiness Level (TRL) — designed to effectively integrate “tech-push” and “market-pull” innovation strategies in order to facilitate the innovations and the “agilization” of all innovaiton processus and organisations.

My contributions in research and innovation have been featured in numerous scientific publications (with an H-index of 13 and over 550 citations) and in several books published in Paris, including J’innove donc je suis!, Tous Entre-Preneurs, and Sky Is No Longer a Limit.

It is time to adopt new tools and strategies for collaborative and open innovation — including those I have proposed — to address asymmetries in processes such as technology transfer, open innovation, and intellectual property strategies. These efforts are crucial to supporting Romania’s ambition to become a reliable international partner in building a strong, innovation-driven future for both Romania and Europe.

I would like to sincerely thank the Mayor of Alba Iulia, Gabriel Pleșa, the entire collaborative team in the Alba region, and all those who participated in this remarkable ceremony — held in the most historically significant hall in Romania.

It was also a great pleasure to share this celebration with my friend and Romania’s only astronaut, Dr. Ing. Cosm. Dorin Prunariu.

I am deeply grateful for all the heartfelt messages I received from the organizers, participants in the ceremony, and from distinguished individuals, friends, and family from across the world, including:

The Presidency of France
Ioan-Aurel Pop, President of the Romanian Academy
Jean-Luc Moudenc, Mayor of Toulouse
Ambassador Nicolas Warnery
Mihaela Lafont, AI Office, European Commission

as well as th evideo messages (in the wonderful surprise film produced by Coworking Channel: https://youtu.be/oR0dPrI-M5s :

General Denis Mercier, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation
Carole Miranda, Head of Europe, Innovation & Competitiveness Service
Bruno Berthet, Aeronautics industry leader, President of GIM and MEDEF Île-de-France
Jean Botti, Founder of VoltAero
Elisabeth Bouchaud, physicist (ONERA & CEA), also a playwright and actress
Nicole Landre, former Director of Communications at ONERA
Laurențiu Chihai & Mihai Huzmezean, former colleagues from the Faculty of Aeronautics, Bucharest
Andrei Constantinescu, Director, Solid Mechanics Lab – CNRS/École Polytechnique
Mirel Birlan, Director, Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy
François Bayle, François Baldeschi, Nicolas Walker – ARESIA
Jason Nadler, Senior Researcher, Georgia Tech Research Institute
Dr. Laurent Chaudron, Cognitive Sciences Researcher
Ciprian Mincu, Technical Manager, ARESIA
Philippe Richard, former Innovation Director, ONERA
Emmanuel Lechypre, journalist, BFM Business
Sabin Gherman, journalist, Cluj
Marie Nicod, Investment Director
Thierry Perardel, Defense Liaison – Grand Est
Bruno Chanetz, ONERA alumnus
Rémi and the Coworking Channel team
Renaud Favier, President of Comp&titivité
Mirel Bran, former correspondent, Le Monde
Maria Shao, David Iagaru, PhD candidate at DLR × X | MVA
J.M. Goyard, former IBM
Elisabeta Lipă, most decorated Olympic rower, Romanian MP
Éric Maini, Managing Director, EUROSAE SAS
Laetitia Ponchon de Saint-André, Legal Director
Mihaela Bustuchina Vlaicu, Yvan & Blandine Ehkirch
Thomas O’Neal, former Vice President, University of Central Florida
Christophe Benaroya, Director, MSc “Aerospace Management”
Harry Yucklea, Yves Gourinat, Professor, ISAE-SUPAERO
Alina Cocîrlan, Post-doc AI Engineer, AMIAD
Julie Arduin, entrepreneur, former HR Director, La Poste
Petrika Ionesco, Opéra de Marseille
Cristi Văileanu, Director, TVR
Laurence Théatin, journalist, France 2
Émile Malet, journalist, Public Sénat
Pierre-André Imbert, Ambassador
Rodica & Ion Anghel (family)
Teodora, Anastasia & Tudor Mafteianu (family) ;
Iulia, Sofia & Alex Jaso (family);
Columbia & Sean Hillen (family);
Véronique & Adam Roudil; and many others.

Other remarkable figures from the world of open collaborative innovation also took part in these events, including: The President of the County Council, Ion Dumitrel; the Prefect of Alba County, Nicolae Albu; Associate Professor Dr. Corina Rotaru; Associate Professor Dr. Eng. Cristina Feniser; University Professor Dr. Attila Tamas – Szora; University Professor Dr. Stelian Bran, Dorin Sava, Sorin Maxim, Gabriel Rustoiu (Director of the National Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia), Andreea Bogdan, Professor Alexandru Mironov (Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Știință & Tehnică magazine in Bucharest), Mihai Precup, Raluca Krisbai, Silviu Sepciu, Teodora and Tudor Mafteianu, the poet and journalist Ana Maria Păunescu, le peintre Daniel Serban who offered on this occasion his painting “Alba Iulia – Vedere” to the city and its citizens, Mirela Mirea, Mihaela Mateescu, Andreea Cordon, as well as Cristian Mladin, who offered an exceptional tour of the Batthyaneum Library, renowned for its observatory and for preserving part of the most famous medieval manuscript known as the Codex Aureus, created between 778 and 820 during the reign of Charlemagne.