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The Faculty dates back to the autumn of 1961 when the Higher Teacher-Training Institute of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (later Higher Teacher Training Institute, forerunner of the "Paisii Hilendarski" Plovdiv University) was founded in Plovdiv offering programs in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.
During the first ten years the Mathematics program witnessed sustained development, which culminated with the establishment of the Faculty of Mathematics and the Faculty of Natural Sciences in 1970, the first two university faculties to be founded.
Two years later the Institute became the "Paisii Hilendarski" Plovdiv University. The present name of the faculty - Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics (FMI) dates back to the beginning of 1990.
The first full-time academic staff were few in number and had to teach courses in various fields. Acclaimed mathematicians from Sofia, the former Soviet Union and Hungary who came to teach in Plovdiv gave their invaluable contribution. Due to the lack of qualified academic faculty, some of the best students were appointed to run seminars. This, however, set the beginning of the tradition of inviting outstanding students to teach seminars at FMI.
Initially, the Faculty offered programs in Mathematics (Teaching Qualification), Mathematics and Physics, and Mathematics (Industrial Specialization), as the latter was last offered in 1975. Later, Mathematics and Physics was transferred to the Faculty of Physics, and Mathematics (Teaching Qualification) was transformed into Mathematics, as specializations in Mathematical structures, Informatics and Teaching Qualification were set up. Another teacher training program was offered in Mathematics and Computer Science. In the Haskovo branch FMI offered a single program in Computer Science enrolling students in 1993, and, jointly with the Plovdiv Technical University, started a program in Information Technologies enrolling students in 1993 and 1995. In 1994 and 1995 students were given the opportunity to pursue Computer Technologies.
Since 1997, Bachelor's
degree programs in Mathematics, Computer Science, and Mathematics
and Computer Science have been offered, as graduate students
can continue their studies in Master's degree or PhD programs
in Applied Mathematics, Pure Mathematics, or Computer Science.
Currently there are 83 full-time faculty members, as 39 of them have attained the academic ranks of Full Professor or Associate Professor, and 46 have been awarded the PhD. They work in 9 departments, viz. Algebra, Geometry, Real Analysis, Complex Analysis and Differential Equations, Applied Mathematics and Modelling, Computer Science, Computer Technologies, Computer Systems, and Mathematics and Computer Science Education.
The large number of publications and citations by Bulgarian and international experts are evidence of the popularity of the faculty members in their scientific fields.
They have been invited as referees of international reviewed journals, as well as in various international mathematical societies and academies, they have presented a large number of papers at recognized international congresses and conferences both at home and abroad. Many of them have been, and some still are, guest lecturers at various universities worldwide.
The major fields of concentration at FMI are as follows: group rings and crossed products, partially ordered algebraic systems and related algorithmic problems, algebras with identities, nets and fibers on manifolds, geometries on algebras, differentiable manifolds with additional structures, invariant linear dependences, fundamental and qualitative theory of differential equations, analytical number theory, Diophantine approximations, approximations of periodic functions with trigonometric polynomials and extremum problems, location of zeros of classes of entire functions, local theory of ordinary differential equations, structures and homogeneous spaces, numerical methods for solving equations, theory of equations with impulses, applied statistics, modeling of physical, chemical, and biological processes and systems, mathematical optimization, game theory, analytical mechanics, information technologies of natural languages, concept modeling of various subject fields, IT in education, electronic publishing, mathematics and computer science teacher training, etc.
FMI currently has about 1,200 students, including international students from Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Moldova, and Ukraine. We are very proud of our over 5,000 alumni and as many specialization students: they are accredited scientists and university lecturers, wonderful teachers, experts in banks and insurance companies, or work in the fields of economics and business, in research teams, etc. They are warmly received both throughout the country and worldwide.
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