Cecal was born in
Cahul,
Moldavian SSR and attended the primary school in
Pianu,
Alba County (1947–1951), continuing his studies (1951–1957) at the Boys' Middle School{{cite web Between 1958 and 1963, he attended the
University of Bucharest (
Physical chemistry/
Radiochemistry). In 1972 he gained his
Ph.D. in chemistry at the
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of
Iași, with a thesis entitled "Kinetics of the isotopic exchange reactions in Tl(I)–Tl(III) complexes with different ligands", written under the supervision of . He fulfilled several postdoctoral appointments in universities and research centers such as
Technical University of Munich (group of
Hans-Joachim Born),
TU Dresden,
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe,
Moscow State University (group of
Alexander Nesmeyanov),
Laval University, etc. ==Relevant publications==