Gheorghe Duca was born on 29 February 1952 to Grigore and Nina Duca in the commune of
Copăceni,
Sîngerei District, while it was still under the domain of the
Soviet Union (today it is in
Moldova). From 1969 to 1974, Duca studied chemistry at the
Moldova State University. During his time there, he became the secretary of the university's
Komsomol organisation, which consisted of around 5000 members, and was later a member of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In 1974, following his graduation, he re-enrolled to study physical chemistry, earning a
Doctor of Science degree specialized in the subject with a thesis titled "Cataliza oxidării acidului tartric și dihidroxifumaric" ("Catalysis of oxidation of tartaric acid and dihydroxyfumaric acid"). In 1983, he was awarded the Moldovan State Prize for Youth in Science and Technology. Between 1985 and 1988, Duca attended a
postdoctoral training course at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the
Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1989 he obtained a
habilitation in environmental protection sciences from
Odessa University, with a thesis titled "Mecanismele proceselor eco-chimice în mediu acvatic" ("Mechanisms of ecological chemical processes in the aquatic environment"). He immediately began a training course in
environmental engineering at the
Sapienza University of Rome, completing it by 1990. Duca continued to undertake such training courses around the world, participating in courses on: ecological management (EERO, the Netherlands, 1993), ecological impact assessment (
Central European University, Budapest, 1996), ecological education (
University of California, Riverside, 2000), managing programs (
CRDF Global and
National Science Foundation, West Virginia, 2000), and water and waste analysis (
American Chemical Society, New Orleans, 2001). == Career and later life ==