Erasmus + Success Stories

Prof. Irena Kostova ,PhD,DSc. Faculty of Pharmacy Department of Chemistry Outgoing Lecturer

Irena's impressions from Sapienza Università di Roma

“THE COLLABORATION WITH THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES SHOULD BE EXTENDED IN ORDER TO DISSEMINATE AND EXPLOIT FURTHER EXPERIENCE/ ESULTS OF THE TEACHING ”

Erasmus+ Period: 27/05/2019 – 31/05/2019

Prof. Irena Kostova, PhD, DSc, maintains intensive fruitful collaboration with reputed scientists and many research groups from Romania, Slovakia, Italy, Austria, Spain and etc. She has promoted and organized signing of bilateral agreements of MU – Sofia under the aegis of Erasmus+ Programme with the following European Universities: Sapienza-University of Rome, Italy; P. J. Safarik University, Kosice, Slovak Republic; Medizinische Universität Wien, Austria; Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy; University of Medicine and Pharmacy „Gr.T.Popa“ Iasi, Romania; Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, where she has delivered lectures during the last years. The lectures were presented to students, specializing post-graduate fellows and teachers and were followed up by exhaustive discussions. Beyond the formal agenda some additional meetings and contacts were accomplished with researchers from different departments and faculties. Apart from the teaching program the lectures were also focused upon various projects supported by Grants from the National Science Fund which attracted much interest and the successive discussions conditioned some possibilities for future academic and research bilateral projects.

Many joint scientific papers in high ranking journals have been published under the collaboration and the mutual research work with the above universities. The research interests of the scientific group of Prof. Saso from Sapienza University of Rome, ITALY are in the field of antioxidant activity, joint papers [Martin J, Mladěnka P, Saso L, Kostova I. Redox Rep 2016;21(2):84-9.; Valcheva-Traykova M, Saso L, Kostova I. Curr Top Med Chem 2014;14(22):2508-19.; Kostova I, Saso L. Curr Med Chem 2013;20(36):4609-32.; Kostova I, Bhatia S, Grigorov P, Balkansky S, Parmar VS, Prasad AK, Saso L. Curr Med Chem 2011;18(25):3929-51.].

The research group of Prof. Mojzis from P. J. Safarik University, Kosice, Slovakia investigates antitumor activity, joint papers [Mojzis J., L. Varinska, G. Mojzisova, I. Kostova, L. Mirossay. Pharmacol. Res., 57(4), 259-265, 2008.; Kostova I., J. Mojzis. Fut. HIV Ther., 1(3), 315-329, 2007.; Kostova I., S. Balkansky, J. Mojzis. Int. J. Curr. Chem., 1(4), 271-280, 2010.; Kostova I., P. Grigorov, J. Mojzis. Int. J. Curr. Chem., 1(4), 291-298, 2010.]. Irena Kostova was a Member of Jury in PhD Students´ Works of the 1st International Student Medical Congress (ISMCK´09) Košice, Slovakia.

The scientific group of Prof. Palafox from Complutense University of Madrid, Spain is very strong in the field of theoretical ab initio and DFT investigations, including geometry optimization, conformational and vibrational analysis etc., joint papers [Palafox MA, Rastogi VK, Kumar H, Kostova I, Vats JK. Spectrosc Lett 2011;44(4):300-6.; Kumar V, Panikar Y, Palafox MA, Vats JK, Kostova I, Lang K, Rastogi VK. Indian J Pure Appl Phys 2010;48(2):85-94.; Rastogi VK, Alcolea Palafox M, Guerrero-Martínez A, Tardajos G, Vats JK, Kostova I, Schlucker S, Kiefer W. J Mol Struct THEOCHEM 2010;940(1-3):29-44.; Rastogi VK, Singhal S, Kumar AP, Rao GR, Palafox MA, Kostova I. Indian J Pure Appl Phys 2009;47(12):844-51.].

The collaboration with the above mentioned European Universities should be extended in order to disseminate and exploit further the experience/results of the teaching and scientific work and to share the experience and knowledge, which is important for the future mutual contacts and bilateral projects.

With over 700 years of history, over 112,000 students, 4000 teachers and 2000 employees, technicians and librarians, in addition to 2000 administrative staff in university hospitals, Sapienza is the first university in Europe. The University mission is to contribute to the development of a knowledge society through research, excellence, quality education and international cooperation.