Vesselina Breskovska

Vesselina Vassileva Breskovska (Bulgarian: Веселина Василева Бресковска) (December 6, 1928, Granit, Stara Zagora Province, Bulgaria – August 12, 1997, Sofia, Bulgaria) was a 20th-century Bulgarian geologist, mineralogist and crystallographer.[1][2][3][4]

Vesselina Breskovska
Born6 December 1928 (1928-12-06)
Granit, Stara Zagora Province, Kingdom of Bulgaria
Died12 August 1997 (1997-08-13) (aged 68)
Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria
Resting placeCentral Sofia Cemetery
42°43.074′N 23°19.904′E
Nationality Bulgarian
CitizenshipBulgarian
Alma materLeningrad State University; Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"
Known forardaite
Children2
Scientific career
Fieldsmineralogy; geology, X-ray crystallography
InstitutionsSofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"

Biography

Vesselina Breskovska was born in Granit, the only daughter of educators Vassil and Paraskeva Breskovski. Her younger brother was the late paleontologist, Stoycho Vassilev Breskovski. After successfully completing Second Young Women’s High School in Plovdiv she was admitted to study in the Soviet Union. In 1952, she took her degree in geology at Leningrad State University. Upon her return to Bulgaria she was appointed assistant professor in mineralogy at Sofia University. Later she became docent and full professor, and taught the main courses in mineralogy, crystallography, X-ray analysis to students of natural sciences. Her favorite lecture course was "Minerals in Bulgaria" and students appreciated it. She taught it for many years, and dedicated a major portion of her research to treating the subject in a systematic manner. In 1988 she was awarded the Doctor of Science from Sofia University. Breskovska was noted for her thorough research on sulfosalt, chlorosulfosalt minerals and on artificial minerals containing selenium. In 1980 her efforts were rewarded with the discovery of a new mineral, which she named Ardaite after the river Arda.[5][6][7]

Another part of her scientific work focused on paragenesis and mineralogy of gold and silver ores as well as on the polymetallic ore deposits containing gold in Sredna Gora and eastern Rhodope Mountains. She was successful in identifying more than 100 minerals and their varieties in these ore deposits.[1]

Vesselina Breskovska’s administrative positions included: Scientific Secretary of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1973–1977), Dean of the Faculty of Geology and Geography (1980–1984) and Vice Rector in Charge of International Relations of Sofia University (1984–88).[8][9] Since 1959 she had been a member of New Minerals Nomenclature and Classification Commission of the International Mineralogical Association, and was the general secretary of their 13th Congress. At the time of her death in 1997 she was president of the Bulgarian Mineralogical Society.[2]

Her collection of minerals was preserved in the Museum of Mineralogy at Sofia University.

Professor Breskovska had been a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, honorary member of the Russian Mineralogical Society and a member of New York Academy of Sciences.

Her daughter, son-in-law and son have also been scientists.

Publications

She was author of more than 130 scientific publications, including: with co-authors Ivan Kostov, J. Minčeva-Stefanova, G. Kirov (1964), The Minerals of Bulgaria (in Bulgarian); with co-author Ivan Kostov (1989), Phosphate, Arsenate and Vanadate Minerals. Crystal Chemistry and Classification.[2]

Notes
  1. "In Memoriam (In Bulgarian)". Review of the Bulgarian Geological Society. 58 (2): 136. 1997.
  2. "In Memoriam: Vesselina Vassileva Breskovska, Professor, Dr. Sc". Bulgarian Mineralogical Society. Archived from the original on 2012-04-15.
  3. Mavroudchiev, Bozhidar (2008). "Some Famous Bulgarian Mineralogists: Remembrances (In Bulgarian)". Review of the Bulgarian Geological Society. 69 (1–3): 112–115.
  4. International Mineralogical Association (1985). Cesbron, Fabien (ed.). World Directory of Mineralogists (3rd ed.). Orléans, France and Marburg, Germany: Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières and International Mineralogical Association. p. 33.
  5. Burke, E.A.J.; Kieft, C.; Zakrzewski, M.A. (1981). "The Second Occurrence of Ardaite" (PDF). Canadian Mineralogist. 19: 419–422. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  6. Breskovska, V.V., Mozgova, N.N., Bortnikov, N.S., Gorshkov, A.I., Tzepin, A.I. (1982). "Ardaite, a new lead-antimony chlorsulphosalt" (PDF). Mineral. Mag. 46 (340): 357–361. Bibcode:1982MinM...46..357B. doi:10.1180/minmag.1982.046.340.10. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  7. Dunn, Pete; Fleischer, Michael (1983). "New Mineral Names" (PDF). American Mineralogist. 68: 642–645. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  8. Who's who in Science in Europe. 4. Longman. 1989. p. 48.
  9. Stroynowski, Juliusz, ed. (1989). Who's who in the Socialist countries of Europe: a Biographical Encyclopedia of More than 12,600 Leading Personalities in Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia. I. München and New York: K.G. Saur Pub. p. 142.

See also

References
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