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The Second Annual Research and Innovation Forum for Software Developers SofTIS Summer Camp 2025
Following the success of its first edition in 2024, which brought together young researchers, software developers, and industry leaders, SofTIS Summer Camp returns for its second year. From June 13 to 15, 2025, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, in partnership with Scalefocus, will once again host this international in-person forum at the company’s Varna office, aiming to foster sustainable networks between science and the tech industry.
SofTIS Summer Camp is an innovative format that bridges scientific research and real-world software engineering. The camp focuses on:
- Promoting collaboration between academia and the tech industry
- Creating space for young researchers and PhD students to develop ideas with practical impact
- Encouraging knowledge and technology transfer from research to business
- Uniting experts from diverse domains to discuss the future of digital transformation
The event brings together academics, industry professionals, and young talents to explore topics such as artificial Intelligence and software systems optimization, blockchain and next-generation platforms, green software development and sustainability, commercialization of research and tech-driven startups, innovative education and PhD training for the IT sector, among others.
The three-day program features keynote talks, panel discussions, interactive workshops, demos, and challenge-based collaboration. PhD research, applied scientific initiatives, and successful corporate practices will be highlighted. SofTIS Summer Camp is not just a conference – it’s a dialogue-driven platform for shaping the future of technology through science.
SofTIS Summer Camp is open to students, PhD candidates, researchers, and software professionals who are passionate about applying scientific thinking to real-world technology development.
Academic Lecture by Prof. Yuri Tschinkel
On March 10, 2025, at 5 PM in the Prof. Marin Drinov Hall of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Yuri Tschinkel will deliver an academic lecture on the occasion of his election as a foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Prof. Tschinkel was elected a foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences on November 25, 2024, upon the proposal of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics. He is a world-renowned mathematician, a creator of several new directions with a huge influence on the development of modern mathematics, with remarkable results in rational points on algebraic varieties; stable irrationality; stabilization; symbol theory; and G-irrationality.
Currently, Prof. Tschinkel is a professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York, USA. He is one of the leading contemporary mathematicians with outstanding contributions to the development of algebraic geometry, algebraic topology and geometric aspects of mathematical physics. For his great contribution to mathematics, Prof. Tschinkel has been awarded several prizes in Мathematics, including the Frontier of Science Award from the International Congress of Fundamental Sciences, Beijing, 2023. In 2018, he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Academy, and in 2021, he was elected a foreign member of the Academia Europaea.
Prof. Tschinkel is а director of the Mathematics and Physical Sciences Division of the Simons Foundation – one of the largest charitable organizations in the United States. It provides grants in four scientific areas: Мathematics and Physical sciences; Life Sciences; Autism Research and Education, Engagement and Outreach. The Mathematics and Physical Sciences Division of the Simons Foundation supports research in the fields of mathematics, theoretical physics and computer science by providing funding for scientists, institutions and scientific infrastructure.
Prof. Tschinkel participated actively in the initial discussions on the establishment of the International Center for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS–Sofia) at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences together with Prof. Julian Revalski, Prof. Ivan Todorov and Prof. Ludmil Katzarkov. Today, Prof. Tschinkel is a member of the ICMS Advisory Board. He has always strongly supported the activities of ICMS–Sofia and contributed to transforming ICMS–Sofia into a leading research and scientific center in South-Eastern Europe.
Antoni Rangachev from IMI receives a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation
Assistant Professor Antoni Rangachev from the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics and Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu – Paris Rive Gauche receives a 5-year PROMYS grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). PROMYS is a funding programme by the SNSF as part of the second Swiss contribution to selected EU member states. It is intended to create promising and interesting career opportunities for outstanding researchers and thus counteract a “brain drain” from these states.
The “Topological, Metric and Algebraic Equisingularity Theory” project will be carried out at IMI-BAS. Its aim is to help Dr. Rangachev establish a research group in singularities. Dr. Rangachev will be assisted in this endeavor by Prof. Norbert A’Campo (University of Basel) and Prof. Zsolt Patakfalvi (EPFL). The project will fund several postdoctoral positions, graduate students, a singularities seminar, research trips for the team members, and conferences in singularity theory that will be held in Bulgaria.
Dr. Rangachev specializes in singularity theory
, algebraic geometry and commutative algebra. He focuses on studying how singular varieties that depend on parameters change under parameter perturbations. Singular varieties are geometric objects that are defined as the solutions of systems of polynomial or analytic equations in many variables and that locally differ from the appearance of Euclidean spaces. When some of the variables in the defining equations of a variety are independent parameters, the variety can be viewed as a family composed of subvarieties called fibers each of which corresponds to a particular choice of parameters. The changes that can take place in a family are of topological, metric or algebrо-geometric nature. There are two extreme cases that can occur. The first one is if there is no change: the fibers of the family exhibit the same nature. Such families are called equisingular. The other extreme case is that of maximum change: the nearby fibers around a singular fiber are smooth (locally resembling Euclidean spaces). Such families are called smoothings.
The main research goals of the project are as follows. In the case of equisingular families the goal is to understand the interplay among various equisingularity notions. In the case of smoothing, the goal is to develop methods to compute topological invariants of the smooth fibers directly from the defining algebraic equations of the singular fiber.
Antoni Rangachev is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate. He obtained his PhD from Northeastern University in 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Terence Gaffney and Prof. Steven Kleiman. He was a Dickson Instructor at the University of Chicago from 2017 to 2021 and a Peter Beron fellow at IMI-BAS from 2021 to 2023. Currently, Antoni is a Marie Skłodowska Curie fellow at Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu in Paris and the CNRS where he works with Prof. Bernard Teissier.
Happy Holidays!
The Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
wishes all its colleagues, partners, and friends
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2025!
As we approach the New Year, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of you for your hard work and our successful collaboration throughout 2024!
The past year was full of challenges, but we achieved remarkable results thanks to our joint efforts. We look forward to the future with confidence, believing that the New Year 2025 will bring us even more opportunities for growth, building trusted partnerships, and achieving new successes.
We wish you good health, happiness, and inspiration! May the New Year bring you and your loved ones much joy, harmony, fulfilled dreams, and success in all your endeavours!
Yuri Tschinkel was elected a foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
On November 25, 2024, Professor Yuri Tschinkel from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York, USA, was elected a foreign member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. A proposal for this was made by the Scientific Council of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics.
Yuri Tschinkel is one of the leading modern mathematicians with outstanding contributions to the development of algebraic geometry, algebraic topology and geometric aspects of mathematical physics. His main results have been published in over 130 papers in the most prestigious mathematical and physical journals and have been cited more than 1550 times. He is the editor of 19 mathematical books and 23 reviews. He was editor-in-chief of the journal Experimental Mathematics, and currently serves on the editorial boards of Springer’s Progress in Mathematics book series, as well as a number of mathematical journals, including Algebraic Geometry, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, European Journal of Mathematics, Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics and Serdica Mathematical Journal – a publication of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Since 2012 Yuri Tschinkel is the director of the Mathematics & Physical Sciences Department of one of the largest charitable organizations in the USA – the Simons Foundation.
Prof. Yuri Tschinkel has always strongly supported Bulgarian mathematics. His collaboration with Bulgarian mathematicians and physicists dates back to his student years at Moscow State University and continues to this day. Yuri Tschinkel was a plenary speaker in the second edition of the international conference “Mathematics Days in Sofia” in 2017, which greatly contributed to the establishment and popularization of this prestigious scientific forum of the Bulgarian mathematical community around the world.
In 2022 prof. Tschinkel was a special guest at the “Second Annual Meeting of Young Bulgarian Mathematicians” – an annual scientific forum organized by the International Center for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) at IMI-BAS. The event brings together young Bulgarian mathematicians working all over the world and introduces the mathematical community in Bulgaria to some of their most significant achievements. During his visit to Sofia, Prof. Tschinkel also gave a special popular lecture entitled “Building Scientific Institutes”, which was organized by BAS and IMI, and in which he shared his experience in financing scientific research in various fields with the support of private capital.
Yuri Tschinkel is an active participant in the initial discussions on the creation of the International Center for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS–Sofia) at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics together with Prof. Revalski, Prof. Todorov and Prof. Katzarkov. Today Prof. Tschinkel is a member of the Supervisory Board of the ICMS. He made an indisputable contribution to the approval of the three-year grant from the Simons Foundation, given to IMI–BAS in 2022, the funds of which are used to organize international scientific forums with the participation of world-renowned and established mathematicians, to open new positions for researchers in IMI and support of scientists from Ukraine and other countries. In 2024 he once again strongly supported the activities of the ICMS through the second grant given by the Simons Foundation for a five-year period, which will finance the creation of four research groups at IMI-BAS, led by world-leading scientists. The funds from this grant will also be used to organize joint scientific events with leading international institutions and to increase support for integration and reintegration programs. The financial support from the Simons Foundation will contribute to the transformation of the International Center for Mathematical Sciences – Sofia into a leading research and scientific center in Europe and in the region.
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