historically, romanian researches and inventors have made notable contributions to several fields, such as: aeronautics, medicine, mathematics, computer science/engineering, physics, biophysics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology. in the history of flight, traian vuia and aurel vlaicu built and flew some of the earliest successful aircraft, while henri coandă discovered the coandă effect of fluidics. preceding him, elie carafoli was a pioneering contributor to the field of aerodynamics in the world.