Alexander Stoyanov Teodorov- Balan

Acad. Alexander Stoyanov Teodorov- Balan is a Bulgarian linguist, literary historian and bibliographer, academician of the Academy of Sciences. Balan is born on October 27, 1859 in the village of Cubei, Bessarabia (Ukraine) and is the son of Bulgarian immigrants. Balan studied consistently in Prague and Leipzig, graduated Slavic Philology in Prague. Prof. Balan was the first rector of Sofia University, elected on 29 January 1889 and several times thereafter was re-elected. Since 1939 he is an honorary doctorate from the University and active member of BAS. He was chief clerk and clerk of the Bulgarian Literary Society (today Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Chief Secretary of the Bulgarian Exarchy.He is the initiator of the founding of the Bulgarian Matica organization in Constantinople, delegate to its First Synod and editor of its organ "Letostrui."Alexander Teodorov- Balan is one of the founders of the Bulgarian tourist movement. Lived almost 100 years and died on February 12, 1959 in Sofia. Acad. Balan’s scientific heritage is set at 866 titles of books, studies, articles and notes, 310 of which are dedicated to the Bulgarian language. Main place in his scientific pursuits take up the research on the grammatical structure of the Bulgarian language peculiarities, of the Bulgarian sound system, the fight against foreign words, enriching the language with people's words. (Photo: www.uni-sofia.bg)