History of the Department


The department was established at the opening of the university. Initially, the lectures were led by Prof. Ivan Kisyov from the VMEI - Sofia and Prof. Marko Todorov from VIMES - Rousse, who was the first head of the department (co-ordination).

In 1964 the first full-time lecturers were appointed: Lyubomir Panayotov (Assoc. Prof.), Gancho Uzunov (Associate Professor), Petar Dragulev (Assoc.Prof.), Vassil Antonov (Prof. Lazar Dobrev (Assoc. Prof.)

In the next 1965, Penko Gradinarov (Prof. Dr.) and Lyubomir Kovachev (Assoc. Prof.) were appointed as Assistant Professors of Mechanics. Ivanka Ivanova (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ivanka Ivanova) took part in the department in 1967.

Since 1965. the department's management was assigned to Gancho Uzunov - then senior lecturer in "Theoretical Mechanics". On June 17, 1966, the first dissertation was defended at the VMEI - Varna by Prof. Gancho Uzunov. Lectures onStrength of Materials are led by Lazar Dobrev - also a senior lecturer. The lectures on "Theory of Mechanisms and Machines" lead Emil Stanchev (Prof. Dr.) from VVVMU "N. Vaptsarov" and his assistants are Angel Mitev and Venelin Sevastatiev (Prof. PhD). In 1966 Zamfir Alexandrov was appointed Assistant Professor of Theory of Mechanisms and Machines, and in 1967 Stefan Darkov (Assoc. Tsvetan Batsinov (Prof.) and Petar Ovcharov (Assoc. Prof.) were elected Assistants of Strength of Materials.

The next head of the Department since 1974 is Peter Dragulev (Assoc. Prof. Dr.). In 1986 the head of the department became Nikolay Minchev (Prof. Dr.) - he went to work at the VMEI - Varna from the VMVMU "N. Vaptsarov" after the death of Prof. E. Stanchev (Rector from 15.X.1979 until 25.I.1985).In 1968 Professor Emil Stanchev, who at that time was at the VMVMU "N. Vaptsarov", was appointed the head of the department. In 1994, Varban Milkov (PhD) was elected chair of the department, and from 1999 to 2007 the head of the department was Zamfir Alexandrov (Prof. Since 2007 until 2015. The head of the department is again Varban Milkov (Prof. Dr.). At present the head of the department is Viktor Chirikov (Assoc. Prof. Dr.).

In addition to the above-mentioned colleagues in the department, they also worked as lecturers: Stoyan Kyudzhiev (Assoc. Prof.), Svilen Kazandzhiev (PhD), Borislav Bondzakov (PhD), Ivan Lukanov (PhD), Dian Dimov, Mr. Birev , Georgi Tonkov, Yanka Petrova, Galina Noeva, Dimitar Uzunov, Georgi Stanchev, Diman Dimanov, Grigor Fidanov, Georgi Georgiev

In 2016. after the joining of the faculty members from the Machine Elements section, the department was renamed "Mechanics and Machine Elements"