Gheorghe Benga was born on January 26, 1944 in Timişoara, Romania. He studied Medicine at the Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMP) Cluj-Napoca receiving his M.D. in 1967, then Chemistry at the Babeş-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca graduating in 1972. After his internship, he finished his PhD (Medical Chemistry) in 1973 and became Assistant Professor at UMP (Department of Medical Biochemistry). After working a year as postdoc in England with Dennis Chapman (Universities of Sheffield and London) he was appointed as Chairman of the new Department of Cell Biology (DCB) at UMP Cluj-Napoca, where he worked until 2009. Gheorghe founded and lead the Center of Molecular Medicine at UMP, the Laboratory of Genetic Explorations at Cluj County Clinical Hospital and was also Visiting Professor at Universities of London, Illinois (Urbana-Champaign – IUC), Osaka, Sydney (since 2003 is Affiliate with School of Biomolecular Sciences). Since 2010 he is Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at Vasile Goldiş Western University of Arad.
In 1985 together with coworkers from the DCB and Ross Holmes (from IUC) who came to Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Gheorghe had his great breakthrough, the discovery of the first water channel protein from the human red blood cell membrane (later called aquaporin1).
He is full Member of the Romanian Academy, of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Romania, of the New York Academy of Sciences and received a number of national and international awards, among them the Emil Racoviţă Prize and Academic Merit (Romanian Academy), Opera Omnia (National Council for Higher Education Scientific Research), Iuliu Moldovan Prize (UMP), Iuliu Haţieganu Great Prize (UMP), Annual Prize and Medal (Balkan Medical Union), K. Miras Prize (Balkan Clinical Laboratory Federation), Gold Medals (Academy of Romanian Scientists, Vasile Goldiş Western University), Medals (Victor Babeş, Grigore T. Popa), Laurels of Science (Radio Romania), Honorary Citizen and Senior of Citadel (Cluj-Napoca Council), Man of the Year (Cluj-Napoca Press), Prizes of Excellence of journals (Viaţa Medicală, Medica Academica, Ambasador Trust), Honor Member Award (Romanian Medical Society New York). He received 6 honorary Ph.D. doctorates.
