Prof. Ekaterina Kozhuharova PhD, DSc graduated from the Faculty of Biology at Sofia University in 1989 with a Master’s.

She was Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacognosy between 2001 and 2003,

Since 2003 Associate Professor and Reader of Pharmaceutical Botany, and since 2020 – Full Professor.

She defended her PhD Thesis in Botany 06.03. on “Reproductive biology of species of the genus Gentiana presented in the Bulgarian flora” in 1994.

She defended a DSc Thesis on “In situ and ex situ characteristics in the biology of rare and endemic plants, conditions for conservation of the gene pool” in 2018. She has a specialty degree in “Medicinal plants and herbs” obtained by Post-Gradual Education in MU-Sofia, as well as a Postdoc University of Marseille, France, University of Haifa, Israel, University of Uppsala, Sweden, University of Palermo, Italy. She is an Erasmus Exchange lecturer in University of Palermo, Italy and JUST, Jordan. Three of her PhD students defended successfully their Doctoral Theses.

She teaches Pharmaceutical botany and is an organizer and a leading lecturer of the elective course “Essential oils and aromatherapy”.

The research work and contributions of Prof. Ekaterina Kozhuharova are in the field of ethnobotany, reproductive systems and pollination ecology of medicinal plants, invasive plant species, biodiversity conservation and many others.

She is the author and co-author of over 115 scientific publications, 5 textbooks, 5 monographs (book chapters) with over 570 citations in indexed journals in J. Citation Reports by Clarivate, Scopus by Elsevier, Web of science by Clavirate, Google scholar, etc.

Expert in the field of ethnobotany, pollination and breeding systems of medicinal and rare plants, melisopalinology, ecosystem services and conservation of rare plants.

Еditorial board member of two scientific journals and a guest editor of a Special Issue of Diversity published by MDPI.

Reviewer in more than 15 scientific journals such as Plant Systematics and Evolution, Plant Physiology and Biochemistry Biodiversitas, Journal of Biological Diversity, Plants MDPI, Phytotaxa, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Pharmacia, African Journal of Agricultural Research, Journal of Herbal Medicine, Journal of Medicinal Plant Research, Scientific Research and Essays, Acta Botanica Croatica etc.

Member of expert groups on – Invasive plants and pollinators interactions, EU; expert in Ministry of Internal Affairs, Permanent working group “Medicinal plants” at the Ministry of Environment and Water and others.

Member of professional organizations and associations: Bulgarian Botanical Society, Bulgarian Scientific Society of Pharmacy, Bulgarian Phytochemical Association, Society of Animalists, Florists and Scientific Illustrators.

Some research publications:

Kozuharova E., Aneva I. and Goulson D. (2020) Bees and medicinal plants – prospective for entomovectoring. In: Hokkanen H. (Ed) Integrative Biological Control, Springer Nature Switzerland https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-030-44838-7_15  ISBN: 978-3-030-44838-7, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-44838-7_15  

Kozuharova, E., Matkowski, A., Woźniak, D., Simeonova, R., Naychov, Z., Malainer, C., & Atanasov, A. G. (2017). Amorpha fruticosa–A noxious invasive alien plant in Europe or a medicinal plant against metabolic disease? Frontiers in Pharmacology, 8, 333. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2017.00333

Kozuharova, E., Lapeva-Gjonova, A., & Shishiniova, M. (2018). Plant–insect interactions: gentians, seed predators and parasitoid wasps. Arthropod-Plant Interactions, 12(3): 453-463. doi:10.1007/s11829-018-9600-6

Kozuharova, E. (2018). Functional flower morphology and entomophilous pollination syndromes in Cape Kaliakra Nature Reserve (North Black Sea coast, Bulgaria). Acta Zoologica Bulgarica, Suppl. 11: 87-90

Kozuharova, E. (2018). Flower constancy of bumblebees-the case of Onobrychis pindicola (Fabaceae) pollinators. Journal of Apicultural Science, 62(1), 135

Some research projects

2020-2023 Floral complexity, Conserve Plants, COST, EU

2020-2024 Conservation of European Biodiversity through Exploitation of Traditional Herbal Knowledge for the Development of Innovative Products“, Horizon 2020, H2020-MSCA-RISE-2018, Proposal number: 823973, Proposal acronym: EthnoHERBS

2019-2024 Project “Environmental Protection and Reduction of the Risk of Adverse Events and Natural Disasters”, National Research Program (NNP) approved by Decision of the Council of Ministers № 577 / 17.08.2018 and funded by the Ministry of Education and Science

2008-2010 Key To Nature Project. Three-year project under the eContentPlus program (Electronic Content Plus) of the European Commission. The project aims to achieve a common European approach to teaching biodiversity topics at different levels in formal education – preliminary, primary, secondary and higher http://dbiodbs.units.it/carso/chiavi_pub21?sc=324