On Value and Criteria: Mihail M. Cernea, a Sociologist with Universal Impact

The recent election of members to our National Academy, the Academia Romana, is a good opportunity for our broader scientific community, as well as for the public at large, to get to know more about scholars whom they perhaps know too little, although these scholars occupy an important position in the science both in our country and in the world. This brief essay is about one prominent scholar elected now as full member of our Academy, the sociologist Michael Cernea. But even more, through this essay's "case in point" I want to address a key broader topic that concerns me, and is now discussed frequently.