Prof. Dr. Monica Dumitrașcu is a senior researcher and deputy director of the Institute of Geography.  Her main research activities are in field of environmental change and protected areas. Her main scientific fields of interest are related to environmental geography; regional and local impact of global environmental changes; land use/land cover changes; protected areas; climate hazards; community-oriented awareness raising and dissemination activities etc. She has published over 200 publications on landscape change and environment issues in Romania. She has coordinated and supervised several national- and international-level research projects and grants. Since 2018 she has been a PhD supervisor and the Director of the Doctoral School of Geonomic Sciences within the School of Advanced Studies of the Romanian Academy. She is the Chair of the International Geographical Union Commission on Land Use and Land Cover Change, a member of the national committee on climate change adaptation and national committee drought and desertification mitigation, and a UN expert on Geographical Names (member of UNGEGN).