“А teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
–Henry Brooks Adams
Spaska Dimitrova Petkova
(8.03.1935 – 17.07.2015)
Deputy Editor-in-Chief in 2007–2011 and Editorial Board Member of Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment in 1994–2015
In the year of her 80th anniversary, it is sad to say our last goodbye to Prof. Spaska Petkova, a teacher, co-worker, contributor and friend. Let us recall the solid academic legacy she left in her lifetime for four generations of scientists, who will continue to pass it on to generations ahead.
Many came to bid an emotional farewell on 20 July 2015 and continue to feel gratitude and to cherish the memory of the time, effort and care she dedicated to them in her lifetime, to name a few: the staff of the Department of Genetics, Agricultural University – Plovdiv, and personally, Prof. Dochka Dimova, Assoc. Prof. Bojin Bojinov, Prof. Diana Svetleva, Assoc. Prof. Svetla Yancheva; Agricultural Academy, Field Crops Institute – Chirpan, personally Assoc. Prof. Violeta Bozhanova, Maize Institute–Knezha, personally Prof. Kiril Hristov; representatives of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Prof. Stephka Chankova; Prof. Zhivko Danailov and Dr. Anna Dimitrova from the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics; many researchers and scientists from many institutes of Agricultural Academy, including AgroBioInstitute, personally Prof. Rossitsa Batchvarova, Prof. Ivan Atanassov, Assoc. Prof. Elena Todorovska, Assoc. Prof. Violeta Kondakova, Assoc. Prof. Nikolai Christov, Assoc. Prof. Krasimir Russanov and PhD students Stefan Tsonev and Borislav Assenov; the staff of the Department of Genetics, Medical University of Sofia and personally Prof. Draga Toncheva, Assoc. Prof. Savina Hadjidekova, Dr. Rada Staneva-Tsvetkova; Assoc. Prof. Georgi Hadjidekov from University Hospital Lozenets; and many others.
Deep respect was paid by the Members of the Academic Council of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Atanas Atanassov, Prof. Evgeni Golovinski, Prof. Ivan Ivanov, Prof Angel Galabov and Prof. Draga Toncheva.
On behalf of the Editorial Board, the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Atanas Atanassov, the whole team of Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment and the Executive Editor, Snejana Pavlova, we would all once more like to express our feelings of deep emptiness from the loss of Prof. Petkova, who will remain in our hearts as a teacher and friend.
Prof. Petkova was part of the Editorial Board of Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment for over 20 years and her knowledge and wisdom have always been of help at times of difficult decisions. It was her idea, as a leading scientist in Bulgaria and Head of the Department of Genetics at Agricultural University – Plovdiv, to propose to publish in Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment (Vol. 16(2), 2002) the thematic issue Genetics & Challenges of 21st Century. It was based on the conference of the same name, which was a great success and was attended by leading Bulgarian and foreign geneticists and molecular biologists. Her main point was to show the methods and trends in modern molecular genetics and biotechnology. She was enthusiastic about the achievements in Bulgaria and the opportunities for future development, collaboration and integration of Bulgaria in research projects.
Let us mention where Prof. Petkova began her career. She graduated from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg, Russia) State Technological Institute in 1957 and defended her DPhil thesis in the field of chemical mutagenesis and molecular genetics in 1974. She began to teach first as an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Chemical Technology and later at the Agriculture Academy and in the Department of Genetics at the Agricultural University – Plovdiv. There she went on to become an Associate Professor in 1981 and Professor in 1992. She specialized many times in leading universities and institutes in the USSR, England, Belgium, etc. and could be mentioned as the most significant Head of the Department of Genetics at the Agricultural University – Plovdiv.
In the early 1990s, following the socio-political reforms in Eastern Europe, Prof. Petkova encouraged many young scientists from Bulgaria to participate in different training programmes in leading universities in Ghent, in Leicester, etc. Particularly, the joint project under the Tempus Programme between De Montfort University in Leicester (UK), the Institute of Genetic Engineering – Kostinbrod and the Department of Genetics at the Agricultural University – Plovdiv played a key role in the career development of many of her students in 1991–1994. Now, some of them are part of the most significant scientific teams abroad.
Prof. Petrova retired in 2003 but continued to seek to be well informed about all modern trends in genetics. Even after her retirement, she never ceased to be invited as a scientific supervisor, member of scientific councils and a referee in biotechnology, agriculture, genetics and medicine.
During her time, the advancements in genetics and conventional biotechnology, in parallel with those in tissue culture and micropropagation of different agriculturally promising crops and new cultivars, served as a solid foundation for the establishment of the Institute of Genetic Engineering (now AgroBioInstitute). There, in her role as a research consultant, Prof. Petkova contributed to its development. On the threshold of the new millennium, the Institute of Genetic Engineering was awarded as a Plant Biotech Center from EC among the selected 34 Centres of Excellence from Central and Eastern Europe and became the first Centre of Excellence in Bulgaria. In this line of development of biotechnology in Bulgaria, Prof. Atanas Atanassov had already formed an International Consultative Council comprising leading Bulgarian and foreign scientists who collaborated in projects and held regular training workshops for students and scientists. The papers from these workshops were published in partnership with Diagnosis Press. Prof. Petkova participated actively in these forums as a lecturer and peer-reviewer. As Prof. Atanas Atanassov now recalls with gratitude: ‘From 1985 to her very last breath, Prof. Spaska Petkova was of invaluable help in the careers of young scientists in the Institute of Genetic Engineering [today AgroBioInstitute] as well as in the scientific councils and research activities.’
But what is it that above all brings us together in the grief we share today? It is the feelings that we all share for Prof. Petkova as a teacher, a teacher in science and a mentor in life. She will be remembered as a dedicated lecturer with a unique ability to encourage analytical thinking in her students. She had the gift of eloquence and was a strict and erudite scholar who would teach with passion and enthusiasm, always engaging her students in dialogue. In proof thereof, we cannot help but share the reminiscences of Assoc. Prof. Violeta Bozhanova, one of her early students, who admits to have been indeed inspired by her to pursue a scientific career in genetics. ‘It had started just like any other exam at university, when, completely out of the blue, Prof. Petkova addressed me – yes, me, one of the many examinees in the room – with an unprecedented request: to rephrase the exam question she had given to another student so as to make it more easily comprehensible! Such an attitude of respect for the students was not in the least popular at that particular time in academia in Bulgaria.’
Thus, she was a bright figure in the intellectual continuity among four generations of geneticists who built a bridge spanning from classical genetics all the way to modern molecular biology and its applications in agriculture, genetics and breeding. As noted by Prof. Kiril Hristov, a colleague and contemporary of hers, she is considered by many to have been one of the people who laid the foundations of the school in plant molecular genetics in Bulgaria.
Prof. Petkova's professional beliefs seemed an inseparable part of her personality. She was deeply emotional and would feel overjoyed at each small triumph she witnessed in her students' careers as much as she would empathize with any of their disappointments. With a solid sense of ethics, she would quiver with indignation in cases of unfairness, bias or misconduct. She would respond with deep discontent when top projects with Bulgarian participation would be initially approved and ranked high on the EU level only to be later rejected solely for the lack of co-funding on the Bulgarian part. Although she felt heart-broken to have to witness the resulting steady decline in biotechnology in Bulgaria in the last decade, in her never-ending hope that things would change for the better, she would not ever shrink from speaking her indignation out loud to the authorities.
It is with grieving hearts that we have to bid our last farewell to Prof. Spaska Petkova. Although she is now gone, the memory of her, of her words of wisdom, loving guidance and precious advice, will twinkle on like a star for us to look upon at rough times.
May she rest in peace; the rest is silence.
Prof. Spaska Petkova will be sadly missed by all her friends, colleagues and students.