Petar Beron was awarded with the Sign of Distinction of the President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences at a ceremony held on 9 October 2020 in the Academy. Prof. Julian Revalski, Full Member of BAS, conferred the award for his merits in the field of acarology and zoogeography and on the occasion of his 80th birthday. The award ceremony was attended by representatives of the Board of BAS and the National Museum of Natural History of BAS (NMNHS).
Petar Beron turned 80, 57 of which he dedicated to science, the museum and its collections. He is Professor Emeritus of the National Museum of Natural History – BAS, Doctor of Biological Sciences.
Being a doyen of acarologists in Bulgaria, his interests and contributions in the field of zoology are extremely diverse. His publications cover, in addition to his special research in the field of acarology and arachnids, chiropterology, biospeleology, fauna of the high mountains, herpetology, entomology, ornithology.
Dr. Beron’s contribution to building museum collections and replenishing them with materials from almost all continents is exceptional. The series “Historia naturalis bulgarica”, “Tranteeva” and “Bureschiana” of NMNHS as well as the series “Biodiversity of Bulgaria” have been published under his scientific editing.
As the highest sign of respect from the guild, today more than 70 zoological taxa bear his name.
