"Our economy is not working the way it should be working,” says Professor Vesselinov. “Working economies generate inventions. A company like Siemens applies for some 2000 patents a year to the European Patent Office. In our country there are no companies that intensively produce innovations and apply for patents. There are just enthusiasts who at home or in some scientific organization manage to create something."

Traditionally nominations are in three categories: chemistry and biotechnology, electrical machinery and electronics, engineering and construction. In the first category the first prize "Inventor of the Year" went to prof. Vladko Panayotov and Marinela Panayotova for the development of a method for filtering exhaust gases. Their discovery will help solve the pollution problem not only in Bulgaria but in the whole of Europe, says Professor Panayotov. He explained that a strategy existed to capture emissions, liquefy them and inject them into the ground. According to the scientist, this would create a number of problems in the future.

What are the advantages of the Bulgarian invention?

"The Bulgarian invention is about the elimination of emissions in the process of creating them,” says prof. Panayotov. “If you produce electricity from low quality coal, for example, there is no need to capture the emission and put them back in the ground, but through using the methods of nanotechnology, quantum chemistry, physics, they are neutralized at the moment they are produced. Carbon dioxide is converted into insoluble and harmless compound. The same happens to sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, while solids are captured separately."

The invention may also be used for purification of gases emitted by cars, airplanes and ships. Prof. Panayotov has the ambition to compete for patent №1 at the competition for European inventors, which will be held in June in Paris. He also plans to send a proposal to the European Commissioners for Environment and Energy for the establishment of an international team, which on the basis of his discovery could realize actual technological solutions for the industry of Europe.

In the "Electrical engineering and electronics" category the award went to Academician Chavdar Rumenin and prof. Sia Lozanova for the creation of new sensors that are unique and are a breakthrough in microelectronics. More from Academician Rumenin:

"These are small microelectronic structures that are capable of transforming with utmost precision the magnetic field into an electrical signal in order to be measured. This finds application in tomographs, when measurement of the geomagnetic field is required, in the search of minerals; in predicting volcanic eruptions. When there are eruptions there are anomalies in the Earth's magnetic field, and our sensors have such sensitivity that they are able to register smallest changes in the Earth's magnetic field. Such sensors can be used in anti-terrorist activities. Bombs contain metal parts and the sensors have the required sensitivity to register metal objects where they are the least expected. Robots equipped with such sensors, can also deal with such cruel acts that were carried out in France."

Companies from France, Germany and Italy have already showed interest in the inventions of Bulgarian scientists. "I hope that with future partnership contracts we will be able to organize mass production of our sensors," concludes Acad. Rumenin.

English: Alexander Markov