THE STEPHAN ANGELOFF INSTITUTE OF MICROBIOLOGY CELEBRATED 78 YEARS ANNIVERSARY

The 78th anniversary of the establishment of the Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology - BAS and the 21st anniversary of its membership in the International Pasteur Network were celebrated on 7 March 2025 with a solemn ceremony entitled "Scientific research contributing to education, health and green technologies". Official guests of the event were Prof. Galya Staneva, Scientific Secretary of the Biomedical and Quality of Life Division (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Dr. Marin Pandev, Director of the Joint Innovation Centre - BAS, and Dr. Daniela Levi, Deputy Director of JIC -BAS. The formal meeting was opened by Prof. Penka Petrova, Director of the IMikB, with an overview of the achievements of the Institute over the past year. A welcome address on behalf of the President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member Evelina Slavcheva, and The Management Board of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was delivered by Prof. Galya Staneva, and Ms Cecilia Castillo, Coordinator for the Euro-Mediterranean Region, welcomed the scientists of the Institute on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Pasteur Network. The event continued with the academic lectures "Innovative developments of IMikB for the benefit of industry and ecology" by Prof. Penka Petrova and "IMikB on the stage of health and pharmacy" - by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Petya A. Dimitrova, and Dr. Hichem ben Hassin shared the experience of the Pasteur Institute in Tunisia in the implementation of the PHINDaccess project (Strengthening Omics data analysis capacities in pathogen-host interaction) with European funding under the TWINNING scientific capacity building programme. The official part continued with the announcement of the winner of the Annual Award of the Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology for significant scientific achievements. For 2025, the price was received by a team of authors from the Departments of Mycology and General Microbiology: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ekaterina Krumova, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Galina Stoyancheva, Senior Asst. Prof. Dr. Vladislava Dishliyska and Senior Asst. Prof. Dr. Zheni Miteva-Staleva, co-authors of the article "Exploring the mechanism underlying the antifungal activity of chitosan-based ZnO, CuO, and SiO2 nanocomposites as nanopesticides against Fusarium solani and Alternaria solani, published in the prestigious scientific journal - International Journal of Biological Macromolecules (Elsevier). The annual "Award for the Best Work of a Young Microbiologist" of the Stefan Angelov Foundation was awarded to Asst. Tsvetozara Damyanova from the Institute of Microbiology - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Deniz Niyazi from MU - Varna and Nikola Ralchev from IMikB.