"Biochemistry suffered in Romania under Nicolae Ceauşescu (1974–1989) from lack of financial support and a complete blockade of scientific contacts with Western universities. Cecilia Motaş, a highly cultured and courageous biochemist, challenged the rules and attempted to promote international collaboration. After the collapse of the communist regime, Cecilia immediately took action to revive biochemistry in Romania by reestablishing an institute, of which she was director, under the auspices of the Romanian Academy.

I met Cecilia at a conference at Göteborg in 1992. She asked me to help her train her young scientists. I was moved by her example and dedication.

In January 1993 two postdoctoral students from IBAR came to the Oxford in the first step of a lasting collaboration between Oxford’s Institute of Glycobiology in Oxford and Bucharest’s Institute of Biochemistry.

This partnership was enthusiastically supported by both the Royal Society and the Wellcome Trust, which saw the importance of trying to rebuild and promote Romanian science."

(Raymond Dwek, Annual Review of Biochemistry, 83, 1-44 (2014)