The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences celebrates its 155th anniversary

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences celebrates its 155th anniversary today with a solemn assembly and a concert at the Sofia Opera and Ballet. President Rumen Radev will be among the official guests.

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) is the successor to the Bulgarian Literary Society, founded in the Romanian town of Braila on 12 October 1869, before Bulgaria's liberation from Ottoman rule.

Its mission, as stated in its first statute of 1869, was to spread education among Bulgarians, to improve the Bulgarian language, to study Bulgarian history and culture, to serve as a scientific centre and to establish contacts with similar institutions abroad. Its first president was the historian and academic Marin Drinov.

Today the BAS consists of 42 autonomous scientific units, which collaborate with scientists from all over the world and support the country's society and economy. Approximately 3,000 scientists work within the BAS, representing about 15% of the scientific workforce in Bulgaria.