// BIO

I was born in Brasov, a city I still feel deeply connected to. I spent my childhood wandering its history-filled streets and did the most aspirational thing a Brasov native can do: I went to the German school. I attended grades 1–4 at School No. 5 (in the German section, naturally), and then continued at the Honterus German High School, where I studied until the 8th grade. After that, I moved on to the Grigore Moisil National College of Informatics (majoring in mathematics and computer science), where I discovered my passion for science.

In 1997 I graduated from the National Intelligence Academy in Bucharest with a bachelor’s degree in socio-psychology. It was an intense period during which I learned not only theory, but also how to apply psychology in real-world, often challenging, contexts.

My passion for understanding human behavior led me further, and in 2003 I earned a PhD in psychology from Babes-Bolyai University. Under the guidance of Professor Horia Pitariu, I wrote a dissertation on “Psychosocial Aspects of Organizational Change” – a topic that fascinated me then and remains one of my key areas of interest to this day.

Over time, I have specialized in two main areas:

• Psychometrics, i.e., psychological and educational assessment, testing and test development – with a strong cross-cultural twist;
• Work/industrial/occupational/organizational psychology: psychology in the workplace – with a particular interest on individual differences (abilities and personality traits) in the workplace.

I’ve had the opportunity to explore these fields from multiple perspectives – from fundamental and applied research, to applications, consultancy, test development, policy implementation and others. And the story continues…

Dragoș Iliescu CV