Dr. Eugen Pavel is a Romanian scientist and the inventor of the Hyper CD-ROM, a 3D optical data storage medium with a claimed initial capacity of 10 TB and with a theoretical capacity of 1 PB^[1] on a single disc. It is considered by some to be the next revolution in computer storage.

Dr. Pavel graduated with a physics degree from the University of Bucharest in 1976^[2]. He was awarded the Romanian Academy Prize in 1991 and obtained his doctorate in Physics from the Romanian Institute of Atomic Physics in 1992^[3].

He won the "Prix International de l?Organisation Mondiale de la Presse Periodique" and a gold medal at the November 1999 EUREKA Contest in Brussels for inventions that lead to the creation of the Hyper CD-ROM. Dr. Pavel has published more than 40 books and articles, and he is the holder of 62 patents and patent applications^[2].

In an interview about his work on the Hyper CD-ROM, Dr. Pavel stated that "the research for this project is 100% personal, (and) so is the support for experiments." (English translation of quote originally published in Romanian)^[1]

Dr. Pavel's Hyper CD-ROM technology is patented in 21 countries: the USA, Canada, Japan, Israel and 17 European states^[2]. USA company Constellation 3D announced on June 7, 2000 a similar optical storage media under the name Fluorescent Multilayer Disc^[4] Recently Hyper CD-ROM was reported again ^[5] but it is not clear what progress has been made since first announcement in 2000.

References

1. ↑ ^{a b} cdfreaks.com's translation of a Romanian article on the Hyper CD-ROM
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Hyper CD-ROM: Three Dimensional Optical Memory with Fluorescent Photosensitive Glass
3. ↑ The Center of Excellence for Advanced Technologies "Euro-Asia" The Gutenberg era sets - the Pavel era begins.
4. ↑ "Hyper CD-ROM Packs Terabytes" PC World, 12 October 2000
5. ↑ The future of discs: 10TB CDs News article, 7 December 2006