Elections for new members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (academicians and corresponding members) are held from 24 to 28 September. The Assembly of Academicians has elected the following new academicians of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences:
Mathematical Sciences:
Academician Stefan Petrov Ivanov (born 1957)
His scientific interests are in the field of geometry and mathematical physics. He is an internationally recognized and established specialist in Riemannian and complex differential geometry, string theories, quaternion geometry, etc., with some of his strongest results in string theories and geometry.
Acad. Stefan Ivanov has made an indisputable contribution to the development of the Bulgarian school of modern differential geometry and geometry of manifolds. He works at the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics of Sofia University and at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of BAS. He was elected a corresponding member in 2014.
Chemical Sciences:
Academician Vassya Stefanova Bankova (born 1954)
She is a world-renowned scientist in the field of the chemistry of biologically active natural compounds. Particularly important achievements of Acad. Bankova are in the study of propolis – a bee product with wide application in traditional medicine and with increasing importance as a raw material for commercial products in our country and worldwide. Her research represents an essential stage in the development of modern ideas about the structure, properties and application of propolis.
Academician Tony Georgiev Spassov (born 1961)
His research is in the area of physicochemical materials science: synthesis of metastable and nanocrystalline materials; phase transformations in metal alloys and salts; kinetics of nucleation and crystal growth in metallic glasses; thermal, magnetic and chemical properties of metastable materials; nanostructured materials for hydrogen storage and synthesis and characterization of nanoporous materials with diverse applications. A number of his works have played a key role in the development of materials science.
Physical Sciences:
Academician Alexander Alexandrov Dreischuh (born 1961)
World-renowned scientist in the fields of photonics (nonlinear optics and ultrashort femtosecond pulse optics), holography, interferometry, and the interaction of coherent light with matter. Participates in the development of new technology for the generation of coherent X-ray radiation. He works at the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.
Engineering Sciences:
Academician Petko Hristov Petkov (born 1948)
His main scientific contributions are in the areas of: automatic control theory – a new class of methods for synthesis at given poles and synthesis of state observers for linear control systems has been developed; numerical methods for computer-aided design of control systems – a new method for perturbation analysis of problems in control theory has been proposed; numerical implementation of complex control laws – a methodology for synthesis and embedding of complex high-order control laws in microcontrollers and digital signal processors has been developed.
Biosciences:
Academician Ilza Konstantinova Pajeva (born 1953)
Her main scientific achievements are in the field of bioinformatics and QSAR modelling. She established a world-renowned school for in silico studies of the interaction of proteins associated with various human diseases with their ligands. She works at the Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering – BAS.
Humanities and Social Sciences:
Academician Ivan Ruschev Ruschev (born 1957)
The most important areas of the candidate’s scientific and applied contributions cover fundamental problems of the Bulgarian private law – its modification and codification, the urgent need to adopt a Bulgarian civil code. In the centre of Ruschev’s scientific interests have always been the classical institutes of the law of obligations – prestation – the centre through which all types of obligation relations are considered. Particularly topical in the last few years have been publications on the amendment of the Constitution, the Istanbul Convention, the admissibility of gender reassignment, etc.
Academician Ivan Ilchev Dimitrov (born 1953)
In his career as a scientist and lecturer, Ilchev has shown remarkable consistency and exemplary purposefulness in his scientific research. Ivan Ilchev’s scientific and applied research has focused on the history of Bulgaria, the Balkans and Europe from the Berlin Congress to the end of World War II.
In his research, Ilchev has sought and found the context – of Balkan history in a European and global context, and of the Bulgarian past in the regional context of the Balkans.
Agricultural and forestry sciences:
Academician Hristo Miladinov Najdenski (born 1958)
His scientific and practical contributions include: Identification of factors and mechanisms of bacterial virulence in domestic animals; Development of methods for diagnosis of infectious diseases of bacterial origin in animals; Creation of new approaches to overcome antimicrobial resistance. He works at the Institute of Microbiology of BAS of which he was the Director from 2012 to 2020.
Academician Ivan Alexandrov Iliev (born 1958)
His main scientific and applied contributions are: Establishment of the ecological, social and economic functions of forests in Bulgaria; Analysis of anthropogenic forest ecosystems of the country’s landscape; Development of methods for rejuvenation of adult individuals of economically valuable genotypes of forest wood species. He works at the University of Forestry – Sofia where he was Rector from 2016 to 2024.
Arts and Art Studies:
Academician Ivan Yordanov Dimitrov-Granitski (born 1953)
He is a writer, author of over 50 books (poetry, criticism, journalism, children’s literature, essays, etc.). In the last 3 years alone he has published two significant fundamental books – “The Energy of the Bulgarian Spirit” about Bulgarian writers from the Renaissance to our present time which shows the great variety of individual creative styles of the selected authors of the last century and a half who have preserved our national spirit and faith, and “The Soul of the Image” about Bulgarian artists and sculptors who worked from the 1920s to the beginning of our century. His works have been translated into Russian, Czech, Polish, Serbian, German and English. He has been Director General of the Bulgarian National Television and Director of the “Hristo Botev” programme at the Bulgarian National Radio, and Editor-in-Chief of newspapers and magazines. Founder of one of the prestigious Bulgarian publishing houses – “Zahari Stoyanov” (1997) and of the series “Duty and Honour”.
