At an official ceremony held on June 25, 2025, at the French Embassy in Sofia, Prof. Julian Revalski was awarded one of the most prestigious awards of the French Republic – the Order of Academic Palms (Ordre des Palmes Académiques). The Order of Academic Palms is the third-highest in France after the Legion of Honour and the National Order of Merit.

The award was presented to him by His Excellency Joël Meyer, Ambassador of France to Bulgaria. Special guests at the ceremony were the Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Krasimir Valchev, the President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Evelina Slavcheva, the Rector of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Prof. Georgi Valchev, the Director of IMI-BAS, Prof. Petar Boyvalenkov, members of the academic community, journalists, and prominent public figures.

Prof. Revalski is an internationally recognised mathematician, a scientist with an exceptional contribution to science and society, a visionary and an erudite administrator who enjoys respect and trust in the Bulgarian and international scientific community.

L’ordre des Palmes académiques is one of the most prestigious distinctions awarded by the French Republic in recognition of contributions to education, culture, and the promotion of the French language worldwide. Although formally established in its current form in 1955, the order traces its origins back to 1808, when Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte introduced a special honorary decoration to acknowledge the merits of university professors and academic staff. Over time, the scope of the order broadened. Today, it is awarded not only to members of the academic community but also to individuals from a wide range of professions who have made significant contributions to the advancement of education, intercultural exchange, and the dissemination of the French language and culture.

Prof. Julian Revalski was President of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in the period 2016 – 2024, Director of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences from 2013 to 2016, and currently Director of the International Center for Mathematical Sciences at the IMI-BAS.

His scientific activity is in the field of Operations Research – optimisation, variational analysis, game theory; in functional analysis – with an emphasis on the geometry of Banach spaces and monotone operators; as well as in the field of general topology – topological methods in optimisation and set-valued mappings. He is the author of over 60 scientific publications, which have been cited more than 600 times, a significant part of which are in prestigious international journals with a high impact factor.

Prof. Revalski has extensive international academic experience – he was a visiting professor at universities in Canada, Cuba, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Peru, and others.

As a director of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics and later as the president of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Revalski has been actively working to attract young talents to science and the international recognition of the Bulgarian mathematical school. His dedicated work to improving the connections between Bulgarian mathematicians working abroad and their colleagues in our country led to the organisation and holding of the extremely successful forum “Mathematics Days in Sofia” (MDS), which was held for the first time in 2014 and has had three editions since then. Prof. Revalski played a key role in the creation of the IMI Mathematics Prize, which is given to Bulgarian citizens with high achievements in the field of mathematics and which has been awarded since 2014. In 2019, together with Prof. Blagovest Sendov, he was among the founders of the International Center for Mathematical Sciences at IMI-BAS (ICMS-Sofia), whose director he has been since 2024.

A few days ago, Prof. Revalski was also elected President of the Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians – an organisation with nearly 130 years of history, whose main goal is the development and popularisation of mathematics and computer science and their applications at all levels in education, science, and business.

Throughout his academic career, Prof. Revalski has demonstrated his clear vision for the role of science in society and has defended his active position in cooperation with state institutions, including the Ministry of Education and Science, the Council of Ministers, the line ministers, the Presidency of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Council of Rectors. He has consistently worked to improve the funding and expand the international partnership of the Academy.