site.btaLIK Magazine Issue Dedicated to 155th Anniversary of BAS Founding Published in English

The issue of the LIK Magazine dedicated to the 155th anniversary of the founding of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, was published in English.

On September 30, 1869 (October 12, as per the Revised Julian calendar) the Bulgarian Literary Society was founded in the Romanian city of Braila. In 1911 it was renamed the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS). In October 2024, LIK magazine celebrated the anniversary of the founding of the Academy with a thematic issue. The issue was presented on October 28 at the National Press Club of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) in Bucharest.

"A duty, not only because the first building to house BTA on Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd, next to Parliament in central Sofia, serves as BAS’ current headquarters", says BTA Director General Kiril Valchev in the issue's foreword. "This is where BTA’s first director Oscar Iskander and his assistant started reading telegraph messages and write by hand the first BTA news bulletins in 1898". He stresses that the current edition of LIK "is more of a duty for BTA, because it is those who have a platform that have a huge duty to present those who truly deserve to be presented - both those who work in the field of science nowadays, as well as those who have left a lasting mark in it in the past."

"The Academy continues to be a cornerstone of Bulgarian science", Academician Julian Revalsky says in an interview to LIK. He retells the stages of the development of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and points out what he thinks have been its most challenging moments and how it has coped with them over time. He also shares observations on why science is so important for our times and our future - both its fundamental basis and its application in our daily lives. "I identify the role of both the academies and science in general in addressing all the challenges that lie ahead of us as crucial and growing," the scientist stresses.

Among LIK's authors is also Chief Assist. Prof. Dimitar Hristov of the Institute for Historical Studies with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who tells in brief the history of BAS between 1869 and 2024.

The issue traces the development of BAS over the years. In a thematic chronology, the magazine presents highlights from a small portion of the news about the Academy that BTA has made public for more than a century.

The LIK magazine also features highlights from the celebrations in 2024 on the occasion of the 155th anniversary of the founding of BAS. These include a ceremony in June in Braila involving participants in the XIX World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, organized by BTA in Ukraine on the way to Odesa, Bolhrad and Izmail - cities with large Bulgarian communities where the forum is taking place.

A special place in the edition is also devoted to Marin Drinov (1838-1906) - one of the founders of Bulgarian historiography and the first president of the Bulgarian Literary Society.

In the 155th anniversary year of the BAS, the LIK magazine also features the greatest successes of the institutes entrusted to the current Directors of the BAS Institutes and the current projects they are developing. Their answers are published in the pages of the magazine.

The issue is now freely available and can be downloaded in PDF format from here.