Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski (UNISO)
The team from UNISO participates in Task 2.3 “Physicochemical characterization of the surfactants” and in Task 4.2.2 “Encapsulation/confinement of actives for agriculture”.
The team has access to state-of-the-art facilities and apparatuses, as well as long-standing experience to conduct all the necessary tasks for characterization the surface properties of new surfactants and to develop the formulations for encapsulation of active ingredients for agriculture applications.
Slavka Tcholakova – Professor
Slavka Tcholakova is Professor of Theoretical Chemistry in Sofia University. Her research interests include: formation and stability of foams and emulsions; rheology of micellar solutions and disperse systems; in-vitro models for digestion and bioavailability of hydrophobic molecules and the respective experimental methods. So far, she has published 140 research and review articles, cited over 5500 times in the scientific literature (h-index = 40). She has been leading 75 projects and participating in 30 projects with international companies.
Zahari Vinarov – Associated professor
Zahari Vinarov is an associate professor in Sofia University and is currently head of the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering. He is leading several industry- and publicly-funded projects in the area of oral delivery of poorly-water soluble drugs, in vitro modelling of the GI tract, surfactants and interfacial phenomena. He has published 29 articles with 1000+ citations.
Diana Cholakova – Post-doc
Diana Cholakova received her PhD in Physical chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Sofia University in 2020. Since then, she has been working as a Post-doc on multiple projects in the field of phase transitions in disperse systems, phase behaviour of surfactants and oils, emulsions and nanoparticles. So far, she has published 29 scientific papers (incl. 5 review papers).
Zlatina Mitrinova – Post-doc
Zlatina Mitrinova defended a Ph.D. in Physical chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Sofia University in 2015. Since then, she has been working as a Post-doc in more than 20 projects, both with public and private financing. Her main interests are in the fields of foam formation, stability and rheology, surfactant solution phase behaviour and rheology. She has 11 publications with 250 citations.