Проф. д-р Валентина Тодорова

Prof. Dr. Valentina Todorova is Director of the Institute of Oceanology – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences with more than 32 years of professional experience as a marine biologist. Born in Varna, Bulgaria in 1966, she graduated from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, the Faculty of Biology as MSc in Hydrobiology in 1992 and earned her PhD degree at the Institute of Oceanology in 2005. She is a leading expert in the field of the Black Sea zoobenthos diversity and ecology, benthic habitats classification and mapping, invasive non-indigenous species in the Black Sea, shellfish population dynamics and environmental state assessment under the requirements of the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. With over 150 scientific publications and technical reports, Prof. Todorova is recognized for her contribution to the establishment of the national NATURA 2000 ecological network of marine protected sites under the Habitats Directive and the knowledge-based implementation of the European framework directives.