CURRICULUM VITAE
of Prof. Razum Andreichin

Date and place of birth: April 9, 1911, Gabrovo, Bulgaria

(April 22 is the date of the respective anniversary, because the Julian system of chronology was changed to the Gregorian one in Bulgaria only in 1916).

Date and place of death: September 26, 1997, Sofia, Bulgaria

Nationality: Bulgarian

Education: Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Sofia, 1933; Ph. D. in Physics 1940; Ph. D. Thesis: "On the Origin of the Electromotive Force in Photovoltaic Effects"

Professional:

a) (main fields of scientific interest and activity)

Astronomy - astrophysics and star photometry

Physics - Photoelectric and photovoltaic phenomena (contact-potential photovoltaic effect, photoelectromotive forces and photoconductivity in crystalline and amorphous semiconductors; photoreceptors); photoelectret state (photoelectrets, photopolarization and their application in the photometry); disordered materials - chalcogenide vitreous semiconductors (As₂S₃, multicomponent compositions, electrical and optical properties, photostructural transformations and information storage, crystal/glass heterojunctions); photometry and colorimetry (optical metrology, devices for light irradiation and various measurements purposes, biological, medical and UV photometry) etc.

b) (career)

Prof Andreichin has been Assistant Professor (1937-46, Sofia University), Associated Professor (since 1947, in the Physical Institute, Sofia, and in the High Technical School, Russe; he was head of the Department of Physics in this School in 1947-1949) and Full Professor (since 1963, Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences, Sofia; Full Professor and head of the Department of Physics in the High Mechanical and Electro-technical School in Gabrovo, 1974-1978).

7 graduated PhD students, more than 20 graduating (MS) students.

Head of Laboratory in the Institute of Solid State Physics (detached from the former Physical Institute) of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, deputy- (vice-) director of the Institute (1952-1957); many years, until he went on pension, a member of the Scientific Council of ISSP.

Prof. Andreichin was the founder and Director (1963-67) of the Central Agro-physical Laboratory of the Agriculture Academy in Sofia.

Prof. Andreichin was a consultant and member of many scientific expert committees. He worked in the National Center for Metrology, in the National Committee for Illumination etc.

Publications: more than 150 scientific publications (about 40% of them connected with amorphous materials), 6 patents, 12 books and manuals, more than 200 popular science papers, dozens of translated materials.

Editor in the (Bulgarian): Journal of Physics and Mathematics, Proceedings of the Physical Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, "Cosmos" journal.

One of the editors (physics, metrology etc) of the Bulgarian Encyclopedic editions.

Lecturer activity: many courses in physics for students in Geology, Biology, Pharmacy; in photoelectrical phenomena, semiconductors and semiconductor devices for students in Physics; in photometry, radiometry, light-technique etc, for post-graduated students.

Associations: Bulgarian Union of the Physicists (former Bulgarian Physical and Mathematical Society), Union of the Bulgarian Scientists, Scientific and Technical Union (Electrotechnics and Energetics section), National Committees (mentioned above)

Prizes and awards: 6 Jubilee medals, several gold and silver badges from different institutions where he worked, many honorary diplomas. In 1971 Prof. Andreichin was awarded with the 1 class "Cyril and Methody" order and in 1981 - with the "Red banner of labour" order.

In October 2001 Prof. Andreichin was pronounced Honorary member of the Institute of Solid State Physics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

When R. Andreichin has begun his scientific activities, Prof. Gueorghi Nadjakov was head of the department of Physics. This great Bulgarian scientist (a future academician) was his direct Ph.D. supervisor. Nadjakov was just working on the experiments which lead to the invention of the photoelectret state. During all his life Andreichin has appreciate the good lessons, the know-how and the counsels of his first scientific teacher. Their common investigation of the nature of the photo-electro-motive forces have had as result the invention and detailed study of the contact-potential photovoltaic effect, called in some of the monographic books "the effect of Nadjakov-Andreichin."

In the 50-th years Prof. Goryunova and Prof. Kolomiets have found the new class of chalcogenide glassy semiconductors. Prof. Andreichin was one of the first scientists (almost at the same time as Prof. R. Grigorovici) who checked the actuality of the investigation of chalcogenide glasses. He begun together with the researchers of his Laboratory in the Physical Institute in Sofia the investigations on these disordered materials, mainly on As₂S₃ - glasses. Among the most interesting results obtained during the detailed investigation of the photoelectret state in As₂S₃-based semiconductors was the experimental determination of the auto-photo-electret effect in semiconductors.

This was the beginning of the School of disordered chalcogenide material investigations in Bulgaria. Several other groups have branched from or have been created in other institutions. One of these groups - that in the Technical University in Gabrovo - was also founded by Prof. Andreichin.

The political situation at that time was very hard, there existed the so-called safety-curtain. It was hard to send publications from Bulgaria abroad and hard for the scientists to travel in the western countries. For this reason several eastern scientists (Prof, Grigorovici and Prof, Andreichin among them) have decided to organize periodic conferences on disordered materials to be held in the former socialist lands. The first Conference on Amorphous and Liquid Semiconductors was organized by Prof. Andreichin and took place in the Physical Institute in Sofia, 1972. These Conferences have been hold every 4 years each time in different East-European country. In 1984 similar Conference was organized once more by Prof. Andreichin, this time in Gabrovo.

Prof. Andreichin was also one of the initiators and founders of the international meetings (conferences) on photoelectrical phenomena in semiconductors. These conferences were also periodic, but they took place all the time in Bulgaria.

Prof. Andreichin did also his best to organize and keep in good state the bi- and multilateral collaboration of researchers of the former socialist countries in many scientific fields and especially in the investigations of chalcogenide semiconductors. He tried and succeeded to achieve good relations with scientists-physicists beyond "the iron curtain" - a very difficult task at that time.

Prof. Andreichin was a person with various fields of interest. He loved the nature, the Bulgarian mountains, and spent almost all his free time in. The almost professional photography was another of his hobbies. He was deeply interested in the history of the physics in Bulgaria and in the history of his natal town. He found old documents, photos and pictures and gave them as a present to the Museum of Gabrovo. He traced the genealogy of his family about 200 years back.

 December 2004