Mocanu was born in Brăila.[1][2] He studied at the Nicolae Bălcescu High School in Brăila, graduating in 1950.[3] He then went to study mathematics at Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, completing his B.Sc in 1953, and his Ph.D. in 1959. His dissertation, written under the supervision of Gheorghe Călugăreanu, was titled Variational methods in the theory of univalent functions. He continued as faculty at Babeș-Bolyai University, rising to the rank of Professor in 1970.
Miller, Sanford S.; Mocanu, Petru T. (2000), Differential subordinations. Theory and applications, Monographs and Textbooks in Pure and Applied Mathematics, vol. 225, New York: Marcel Dekker, Inc., ISBN0-8247-0029-5, MR1760285
Mocanu, Petru T. (2011), "Injectivity conditions in the complex plane", Complex Analysis and Operator Theory, 5 (3): 759–766, doi:10.1007/s11785-010-0052-y, MR2836321