Address: Department of Mechanical Wood Technology, Faculty of Forest Industry, 10 Kliment Ohridski Blvd., University of Forestry, 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria.

Location: Administration – building А, Laboratory 22, ground floor.
Teaching staff – building А, II and III floor.
Laboratories – building А – lab. №. 20, 21; Educational Laboratory Corpus – №. 103, 104, 105, 305 and 306; Laboratory of Press Materials.

Head of Department: Assoc. Prof. PhD Nikolay Spasov Bardarov

Quality manager: Chief Assist. Professor, PhD Rosen Ivanov Grigorov

Office Managers: Daniela Petrova Peeva – administrative and academic documentation – building А, ground floor, laboratory 22, phone 003592 91907 int. 323, e-mail
Tihomir Dimitrov Stanev – research equipment and measurements – laboratory of Press Materials, phone 003592 91907 int. 493

History

The department was established in 1950. The first Head of the Department was Prof. Petko Chernaev, who managed it until 1966. Prof. Svilen Nikolov was elected as the next Head of the department for the period 1966-1974. On February 1, 1974 the Department was divided into two new departments: Department of Woodworking and Department of Furniture Production.

In 1974 Assoc. Prof. (later Professor) Geno Donchev was elected as the Head of the Department of Woodworking. The academic staff of the department at that time included the following lecturers: Assoc. Prof. Geno Donchev, Assoc. Prof. Kiril Kirov, Assoc. Prof. Bancho Gankov, Chief Assist. Prof. Ivan Shishkov, Chief Assist. Prof. Nikolay Yosifov, Chief Assist. Prof. Anka Parusheva and Assist. Prof. Valentin Tsolov. The listed academic staff provided the training (lectures and laboratory exercises) in the basic technological disciplines.

In the period 1975-1979 the academic staff of the department was increased with three new assistant professors: Georgi Blagoev, Ivan Genov and Veselin Brezin. During that time the academic staff of the department, and respectively the number of training disciplines taught by the department, was increased.

In 1986, the Department of Woodworking was renamed to Department of Wood Technology and Prof. Geno Donchev was elected as the first Head of the Department. At that time the aforementioned chief assistants had already obtained academic ranks and many of the assistants had defended their dissertations.

Attracting young people has already been a key priority of the department policy. During that time the academic staff of the department was increased with the following lecturers: Eng. Lilyana Valcheva, beginning her career as a researcher (1983), research associate Ist degree (1992), Chief Assist. Prof. (1995), Assoc. Prof. (1997); Assist. Prof. Neno Trichkov (1989), which in 1997 became Associate Professor; the assistant professors Peter Velev and Stefan Ganev (1987 and 1988), who later left the department and continued their scientific careers in the University of Chemical Technology and Metallurgy – Sofia and Quebec, Canada, respectively.

In 1993, the department returned its name as the Department of Mechanical Wood Technology. During that period the Head of the Department was Assoc. Prof. Veselin Brezin and the academic staff was increased by the following new lecturers: Assoc. Prof. Genka Blaskova, Assoc. Prof. Todor Todorov, Chief Assist. Prof. Nedelcho Nedelchev, Chief. Assist. Prof. Julia Mihajlova (1996), who became an Associate Professor in 2002, and Assist. Prof. Nikolai Bardarov (1995) who became an Associate Professor in 2012.

Other lecturers, who worked in the Department, are Prof. Petko Petkov, the associate lecturers: Assoc. Prof. Hristo Boyadzhiev, Eng. Anatoliya Ivanova, Eng. Georgi Georgiev, and Eng. Emil Stoilov – Head of the Laboratory of Press Materials.

The Heads of Department from 1974 until now were: Prof. Dr. Geno Donchev (1974-1993), Assoc. Prof. Veselin Brezin (1993-1995), Prof. Nikolay Yosifov (1995-1999), Prof. Veselin Brezin (1999-2003), Assoc. Prof. Neno Trichkov (2003-2007), Assoc. Prof. Todor Todorov (2007-2012), Assoc. Prof. Lilyana Valcheva (2012-February 2016), Prof. Veselin Brezin (February-December 2016), Assoc. Prof. Julia Mihailova (December 2016 – to present).

The academic staff of the department was increased by Eng. Rosen Grigorov (Chief Assist. Prof, PhD since 2017), Eng. Petar Antov (Assoc. Prof., PhD since 2015), Eng. Viktor Savov (Assoc. Prof., PhD since 2015), and Eng. Daniel Koynov (Chief Assist. Prof, PhD since 2018).

The Department of Mechanical Wood Technology provides lectures and exercises in academic subjects, included in the curricula of four specialties of the University of Forestry – Technology of Wood and Furniture, Engineering Design, Business Management and Forestry in the educational and qualification degrees of Bachelor and Master and in the educational and scientific degree “Doctor” in full-time and part-time studies.

In the period 2011-2014 Eng. Tsvetelin Evstatiev was a full-time PhD student who had successfully completed his training and acquired the right to defend his PhD thesis. Two part-time PhD students – Eng. Daniel Koynov and Eng. Diana Mladenova were enrolled in the Department and successfully defended their PhD theses in 2017. Yasmina Khalaf from the Republic of Lebanon was enrolled as a part-time doctoral student at the department in January 2020, with Assoc. Prof. Yulia Mihailova as her scientific supervisor.

The organization of educational activities, as well as the administrative documentation and maintenance of facilities at the department is entrusted to Maria Yurukova (1977) and Nikolai Galabov (1998).