SHORT COMMUNICATION
A tribute to Prof. DSc Elissaveta Bozilova on the occasionof her 80th birthday
Spassimir Tonkov
Received: 9 December 2011 / Accepted: 9 February 2012 / Published online: 22 February 2012
� Springer-Verlag 2012
One of the outstanding European palynologists and palaeo-
ecologists, Prof. DSc Elissaveta Bozilova celebrates her
80th birthday on March 17th 2012. For more than 50 years
she has been actively involved in science and teaching in
the Faculty of Biology at Sofia University St. Kliment
Ohridski. Her interest in botany, and subsequently in paly-
nology, was encouraged and supported by her master’s
degree supervisor Prof. Boris Kitanov in the mid 1950s and
also by her family members. The remarkable scientific and
teaching career of Elissaveta Bozilova started in 1958
when she joined the academic staff of the Department of
Botany as an Assistant Professor.
The initial years of her research were devoted mostly to
the investigation of the pollen morphology of various
gymnosperm and flowering plant taxa, but subsequently
this knowledge was applied to the study of the late Qua-
ternary history of the Bulgarian flora and vegetation, and
gradually expanded to aeropalynology, melissopalynology,
archaeobotany, marinopalynology and pollen monitoring.
Numerous pollen analytical studies were conducted by her
on lake, mire and peat sediments in the glaciated and non-
glaciated Bulgarian mountains, along the Black Sea coast,
the Danube valley and inland plains as well as on marine
cores. Elissaveta Bozilova and her co-workers postulated
for the first time the main chronological stages in the late-
glacial and Holocene vegetation development in different
parts of the country and contributed to the elucidation of
important scientific issues such as location of glacial tree
refugia and migration routes, fluctuations in the tree line,
formation of recent vegetation belts and specific plant
communities, pollen dispersal mechanisms, climate chan-
ges, sea-level fluctuations, human impact on the natural
environment since prehistoric times, etc. She also laid
the foundations of contemporary aeropalynological and
melissopalynological studies in Bulgaria.
An important premise for the recognition of Elissaveta
Bozilova as a leading Bulgarian palynologist was the estab-
lishment of personal and fruitful long standing scientific con-
tacts with outstanding foreign specialists, including Prof. H. -J.
Beug, Prof. G. Lang, Prof. B. E. Berglund, Dr. A. Smit, Prof.
K. Fægri, Prof. H. J. B. Birks, Prof. M. Ralska-Jasiewiczowa,
Prof. Y. Vasari, Prof. B. Ammann, Prof. L. -K. Konigsson,
Prof. S. Hicks, Prof. J. -L. de Beaulieu, Prof. K. -E. Behre, Prof.
N. Athanasiadis, Prof. C. -A. Haeggstrom, Prof. H. Jungner,
Prof. A. Gerasimidis, and many others, who shared generously
their knowledge and expertise in palaeoecological and
botanical research, both in the field and in the laboratory.
One of the most important professional merits of Elis-
saveta Bozilova, in addition to her intensive research and
teaching activities, was the organization of the Laboratory
of Palynology at the Department of Botany, which she
administrated successfully until 2000. The laboratory
established itself as the leading national centre in funda-
mental and applied palynology and palaeoecology, where
Elissaveta Bozilova supervised over 25 master and doctoral
students from several generations, most of them being
engaged today either in research or teaching in the broad
Communicated by F. Bittmann.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of thisarticle (doi:10.1007/s00334-012-0353-3) contains supplementarymaterial, which is available to authorized users.
S. Tonkov (&)
Laboratory of Palynology, Department of Botany, Faculty
of Biology, Sofia University ‘‘St. Kliment Ohridski’’,
8 Dragan Tzankov Blvd, 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
123
Veget Hist Archaeobot (2012) 21:243–244
DOI 10.1007/s00334-012-0353-3
field of botany at universities, academic institutions, labo-
ratories, museums and governmental organizations.
On the European palynological stage Elissaveta Bozi-
lova has led the Bulgarian working group within the IGCP
Project 158B Palaeohydrological changes in the temperate
zone during the last 15,000 years—lake and mire envi-
ronments (1980–1988), devoting much of her time to
introducing the new standardized approach to palaeoeco-
logical investigations of late Quaternary deposits in Bul-
garia. The palynological data from the established set of
national reference sites (lakes, mires, peat-bogs, marine
cores) was later on successfully incorporated into the
European pollen database where Elissaveta Bozilova
served actively for two successive terms (1994–1998) as a
member of the advisory board. The experience and respect
that Elissaveta Bozilova has gathered in contacting and
organizing scientists helped her to play an active role in the
international research initiative Pollen monitoring pro-
gramme since 1996 (Fig. 1).
In the course of several decades, as a scientist and expert
with profound knowledge of different aspects of palynol-
ogy and palaeoecology, Elissaveta Bozilova has attended
upon invitation numerous congresses, conferences, meet-
ings, workshops and field trips in nearly all European
countries. In her long and productive scientific career she
has published alone or jointly over 170 research contribu-
tions in monographs, books, national and international
journals, magazines, symposia and workshop proceedings
(see Electronic Supplementary Material).
After her symbolic retirement in 2000 Elissaveta
Bozilova continues active palynological research on national
and international projects. It deserves mention that a number
of high quality research papers by her, focused on high-
resolution pollen records from lakes and peat-bogs, have
recently appeared in international and national scientific
media.
The endless enthusiasm and active role of Elissaveta
Bozilova in modern palynological and palaeoecological
science are a logical answer to the present-day challenges.
We all, her students, colleagues, friends and many others,
with whom she has worked and shared knowledge, express
our thanks and gratitude, and would like to congratulate her
cordially on the occasion of her 80th birthday.
Fig. 1 Left Elissaveta Bozilova sitting at the microscope, right at Lake Arkutino with Sheila Hicks during a meeting in the frame of the pollen
monitoring programme (PMP) in Bulgaria 2005
244 Veget Hist Archaeobot (2012) 21:243–244
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