Florica Topârceanu

She is a founding member and the Scientific Secretary of the National Commission on Antarctic Research (NCAR) of Romania,[2] as well as being the head of the Extreme Life Laboratory at the Virology Institute 'Ștefan Nicolau' of the Romanian Academy.

[3] Topârceanu is one of the initiators of an Arctic and Antarctic Research Department within the Romanian Institute for Biological Sciences (INCDSB).

She is the current director of the Romanian Antarctic project on biomedical research under extreme life conditions (Promotion Within a European and International Partnership of Biomedical Research under Extreme Life Conditions), an international collaboration between universities from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Israel, Sweden, and the United States.

[9] Topârceanu collaborated on the IPY Project 1267 "Evolution of pedobiological processes in Polar Zones", and achieved the project "Adaptation responses of Romanian explorers to the extreme Antarctic environment as compared with the Arctic one" in cooperation with Australia, as proposed within IPY Action 181 "Taking the Antarctic – Arctic Polar Pulse".

[8] Her work has provided insight into human adaptations to extreme conditions and continues to promote the domestic and international cooperation in polar research fields[8] in order to develop the Romanian Antarctic community.