CPSBB hosted the first edition of Plovdiv Science Festival, 23-26 November 2023

 

Thousands of students, teachers, their families and friends visited CPSBB on 23-26 November 2023 where the first edition of Plovdiv Science Festival was organized by the “Beautiful Science” Foundation.

More than 1,500 students (1st-12th grade) from 34 schools took part in the event which aims at connecting teachers and scientists so that more scientists could enter classes in schools and enrich the theoretical education with practical knowledge and experience.

“We hope that by participating in Plovdiv’s first science festival, the children will find the spark that will awaken their curiosity and interest in being researchers. CPSBB is very proud of hosting and partnering such an event as it fully corresponds to our main goal and mission as a Bulgarian Center of Excellence – to bridge the gap between science, industry, government and society and create an optimal environment for career development of Bulgarian and foreign researchers”, said Assoc. Vesela Kazashka, Head of Administration at CPSBB.

Over 100 events were included in the 3-days event , incl. workshops on “Magnetism and Electricity”, “Raspberry and Blueberry for Students”, scientific-musical show “Physics and Music” with the participation of “Kerana and the Cosmonauts” and Doctor of Physics from Plovdiv University “Paisiiy Hilendarski”. The stands with experiments and demonstrations of the Institute of Optical Materials and Technologies “Acad. Yordan Malinovski” (IOMT) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Fruit Growing Institute at the Agricultural Academy, Kvant Club, Agricultural University, University of Food Technology, Plovdiv University, Technical University – Plovdiv, Project “The Genome of Bulgaria”, A1, MindHub, as well as Jeanette-45’s.

The panel with scientific lectures offered the unique possibility to visitors to meet renowned scientists as Prof. Dr. Irina Yegorchenko (one of the leading women in Ukrainian science, a mathematician from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine), and Prof. Mark Middleton from the University of Oxford arrives to present a new method for the early diagnosis of various types of cancer using a single blood sample. The teacher from the University of Madrid, Fernando Blasco, as well as Prof. Michael Sandi, a British geologist with a long career in the USA participated in the school program.

Dr. Emil Vatov, a scientist in the Molecular Stress Physiology Department of CPSBB, held a lecture on why plants change their leaves. It was an interesting overview of some essential processes during different stages of the plant’s life cycle.