The department boasts a talented academic staff of over 60 members. The Faculty staff includes four full professors (one of whom is a Fellow and another a Corresponding Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), two associate professors, and four assistant professors. Additionally, the DCPE staff comprises 19 Post Docs and 7 Technicians, all working on various scientific and industrial projects. The research team is further strengthened by younger members, including 9 PhD students and over 20 MSc and BSc students.

Professors in the department are among the most cited Bulgarian scientists: Prof. Nikolai Denkov has over 11 500 citations; Prof. Krassimir Danov has over 5 500 citations, and Prof. Slavka Tcholakova has over 5 400 citations. Furthermore, Prof. Denkov, Prof. Kralchevsky, Prof. Ivanov, and Prof. Danov were included in the Stanford/Elsevier’s Top 2% Scientist Ranking for 2023. They are ranked 662, 1058, 1673 and 1782, respectively, in the Chemical Physics category among 100 804 scientists included.

The research in DCPE focuses on disperse systems with applications in chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries. Research is conducted in collaboration with prestigious academic and industrial partners across the globe. Academic partners of DCPE have been the Cambridge University (UK); ETH Zürich (CH); Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Mainz, DE); CRPP-CNRS Bordeaux (FR); ESPCI-Paris (FR); University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE); Technical University of Graz (AT); Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, SE); University of Patras (GR); University of Hull (UK); NIPS Okazaki (Japan); Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, USA); Technion and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).

DCPE have collaborated with the R&D centers of the companies Unilever, BASF, Saint Gobain, Janssen, Wacker Chemie, KLK OLEO (Malaysia), S. C. Johnson & Son, Pepsi Co, Dow Corning, Kraft Foods, Krüss, Prodtech Chile, DSM Biomedical B.V., Sasol GmbH, Nippon Soda Co., Lubrizol, Altana AG, Biokit R&D, BYK-Chemie and Colgate Palmolive,.

Currently, the Professors in DCPE lead over 20 research projects executed in collaboration with international companies, as well as several research projects for fundamental studies.

DCPE members have received numerous national and international awards for their excellence in science. These awards include five different Pythagoras Awards, which is the most prestigious scientific honor in Bulgaria, and three Honorary Blue Ribbon Insignia awards, one of the highest recognitions from Sofia University. Additionally, the department has been honored with the ECIS-Solvay Prize and the ECIS-Lyklema Prize by the ECIS community, along with numerous other awards earned by our talented students.

The Department is well equipped with the most modern scientific apparatuses, including:

• SAXS/WAXS equipment (Xeuss 3.0, Xenocs, France),
• Confocal microscope LSM 900 (Zeiss, Germany),
• Imaging ellipsometer with BAM (EP4, Accurion GmbH, Germany),
• Bubble pressure tensiometer (BP100, KRÜSS Scientific, Germany),
• Drop shape analyzer (DSA 100E, KRÜSS Scientific, Germany),
• optical microscopes, rheometers, analytical techniques and many more.

The department is deeply involved in teaching, offering courses in mathematics, fluid mechanics, and specialized programs. It has developed the Bachelor program in “Chemical Engineering and Contemporary Materials” (in cooperation with the Department of Applied Inorganic Chemistry) in 2008, and the Master programs “Disperse Systems in Chemical Technologies” in 2012, and “Cosmetics and Household Chemistry” in 2017.

Historical milestones include winning two 3-year TEMPUS projects in 1992 and 1995 (funded by the European Union) for MSc students in cooperation with European universities in France, Germany, United Kingdom, Greece and Belgium.