In hmolscience, Mircea Gligor (1963-2015) was a Romanian physicist noted his 2001 article “Econophysics: a New Field for Statistical Physics”, co-written with Romanian physicist Margareta Ignat, wherein they cite thinkers such as Ettore Majorana on quantum socioeconomics, Thomas Lux on stock market crashes and statistical physics phase transitions, Dietrich Stauffer, on the Columbus-like rediscovery of econophysics, among others, and more notably for his 2003 PhD dissertation “Thermodynamics and Statistical Models for Dissipative Socio-Economic Systems”, supervised by Ignat (see: human thermodynamics dissertations). [1]

Sociophysics
Gligor, in his 2012 chapter “Statistical Physics Models for Group Decision Making”, stated that he considered the following: Hermann Haken (Advanced Synergetics, 1983), Elliott Montroll (“On the Dynamics and Evolution of Some Sociotechnical Systems”, 1987), and Serge Galam (“Majority Rules, Hierarchical Structure and Democratic Totalitarianism: a Statistical Approach”, 1986) to be three “remarkable works” of pre-21th century sociophysics. [6]

Phase change
In 2001, Gligor and Romanian physicist Margareta Ignat, in their “Econophysics: a New Field for Statistical Physics”, argue that the 19 Oct 1987 "Black Monday" stock market crash, measured by the Dow Jones average, below left, corresponds to a type of lambda phase change, such as for instance measured by the specific heat of helium versus temperature as it changes from superfluid helium He(II) to ordinary viscous helium He(I) suddenly past the peak or lambda point:

Gligor and Romanian physicist Margareta Ignat argued, in 2001, that the 1987 stock market crash is a type of physical lambda phase transition that can be quantified or defined in some way as a second derivative of the Gibbs function. [2]

The comparison seems decent food for thought. The actual market crash phase transition model, however, seems to seems to have originated in 1998 work of Belgian physicist Marcel Ausloos, (pictured below), et al. [5]


Above: a 2012 photo of Gligor (left), with Dietrich Stauffer (University of Stuttgart) (middle), and Marcel Ausloos (University of Liege) (right), the latter of which in noted for a number of socioeconomic physics papers going back to 1998. [3] Right: Gligor, seated next to Ion Siman (front) on the occasion of the first international workshop EDEN - Exploratory Domains of Econophysics News - Pitesti, 2008 (see: EDEN/UPESW 2013). [4]

Mircea Gligor, Dietrich Stauffer, Marcel Ausloos (2012)

Above: a 2012 photo of Gligor (left), with Dietrich Stauffer (University of Stuttgart) (middle), and Marcel Ausloos (University of Liege) (right), the latter of which in noted for a number of socioeconomic physics papers going back to 1998. [3] Right: Gligor, seated next to Ion Siman (front) on the occasion of the first international workshop EDEN - Exploratory Domains of Econophysics News - Pitesti, 2008 (see: EDEN/UPESW 2013). [4]

Education
Gligor completed his BS in physics in 1986 at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, focusing solid state physics, his MS in 1997, with a thesis on the thermodynamics of irreversible processes at Roman Voda National College, Roman, Romania, in 1997 became an associate researcher in econophysics at Alexandru loan Cuza University, lasi, Romania, and in 2003 completed his PhD with a dissertation on “Thermodynamics and Statistical Models for Dissipative Socio-Economic Systems”, under the supervision of Romanian physicist Margareta Ignat, also at Alexandru loan Cuza University. In December 2003, he on the “Stefan Procopiu” award of Romanian Academy for his work in statistical physics and econophysics.

References
1. (a) Gligor, Mircea and Ignat, Margareta. (2001). “Econophysics: a New Field for Statistical Physics” (pdf), Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 26(4):1-8.
(b) Gligor, Mircea. (2003). “Thermodynamics and Statistical Models for Dissipative Socio-Economic Systems”, PhD thesis, advisor: Margareta Ignat.
(c) Savoiu, Gheorghe. (2012). Econophysics: Background and Applications in Economics, Finance, and Sociophysics (pg. 13). Academic Press.
2. Gligor, Mircea and Ignat, Margareta. (2001). “Econophysics: a New Field for Statistical Physics” (pdf), Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 26(4):1-8.
3. (a) Zanocea, Cosette. (2012). “Professor at the ‘Roman-Voda’ Researcher in Belgium, PhD physical economics” (Romanian → English) , Ziarul de Roman, Aug 27.
(b) Marcel Ausloos (papers) – Ideas.Repec.org.
4. Zanocea, Cosette. (2012). “Professor at the ‘Roman-Voda’ Researcher in Belgium, PhD physical economics” (Romanian → English) , Ziarul de Roman, Aug 27.
5. Vandewalle, N. & Boveroux, Ph. & Minguet, A. & Ausloos, Marcel. (1998). “The Crash of October 1987 seen as a Phase Transition: Amplitude and Universality” (abs), Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 255(1): 201-210.
6. (a) Gligor, Mircea. (2012). “Statistical Physics Models for Group Decision Making”, in: Econophysics: Background and Applications in Economics, Finance, and Sociophysics (editor: Gheorghe Savoiu) (§9, pgs. 131-48, statement, pg. 132). Academic Press.
(b) Haken, Herman. (1983). Advanced Synergetics (Amz). Springer.
(c) Galam, Serge. (1986). “Majority Rules, Hierarchical Structure and Democratic Totalitarianism: a Statistical Approach” (abs), Journal of Mathematical Psychology 30:426-34.
(d) Montroll, Elliott W. (1987). “On the Dynamics and Evolution of Some Sociotechnical Systems” (abs) (pdf), Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 16:1-46.

Further reading
● Gligor, Mircea and Ignat, Margareta. (2003). Econophysics. Romania.

External links
● Mircea Gligor (about) – Adralex.ro.
● Mircea Gligor – Microsoft Academic Search.


Gligor and Romanian physicist Margareta Ignat argued, in 2001, that the 1987 stock market crash is a type of physical lambda phase transition that can be quantified or defined in some way as a second derivative of the Gibbs function. [2]