Denitsa Nikolova from the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” is the winner of the award “Outstanding Young Scientist in Polymers” named after Prof. Ivan Shopov for 2023. At an official ceremony on 1 March in the hall of the Federation of Scientific Engineering Unions the award was presented by the founder of the award, Prof. Ivan Shopov, and the President of the Union of Chemists Prof. Venko Beshkov. The research of PhD student Denitsa Nikolova is dedicated to the development of polymer carriers of biologically active substances with potential application in ophthalmology. Soft contact lenses containing suitable drug substances, which are gradually released and enter the eye, are made of new polymeric materials. The results achieved are important for the development of a highly promising field in medicine and are reflected in 2 scientific publications in the international journals “Polymer International” and “Gels“.

The following young scientists also participated in the competition:

Selin Kyuchyuk – chemist at the Institute of Polymers at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with two publications on the preparation of nanofibrous composites by electrospinning of two-component and three-component mixed solutions of poly(ethylene oxide), poly(L-lactide) and beeswax in the journals “Macromolecular Bioscience” and “Polymers“, and Erik Dimitrov – chemist at the Institute of Polymers at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with two articles in “Nanomaterials” and “Nanoscale Advances” describing the preparation of liposomal spherical nucleic acids.