My scientific interests

 

I am mainly interested now in Artificial intelligence applied to the analysis of biological dynamic phenomena.

 

I work on the simulation of plant fluorescence at the level of a single chloroplast, leaf, whole plant and a whole ecosystem. I apply Cellular Automata theory and Kohonen’s Self-Organizing Map neural network for analysis of Chlorophyll a Fluorescence signals, which permit a deep insight into complex molecular phenomena. I have developed my own software for this work, for both, neural network fluorescence analysis and cellular automata fluorescence simulation. I am developing a huge neural network program for numerical simulation of plant fluorescence and at this moment (October 2004) I am in the final stage of the software testing phase. This work makes part of my PhD thesis. I have started to write the manuscript of my thesis and hope around the endings of October 2005 to be finished.

 

Since I was student of Chemical Engineering at the Technological University of Burgas, Bulgaria, I was highly interested in computers application in Science. I worked with Dr. Anton Popov and Mr. Stancho Pavlov as team leader of the Software Development Unit at the Central Research Laboratory of the Technological University of Burgas. The software we developed was used for Crystallographic research. I also wrote some software for molecular structure determination based on X-Ray powder diffraction experiments.

 

While working with Prof. Aristoteles Dimov at the Ecological Analysis Unit of the Ecology Department of the University of Burgas I was in charge of making environmental chemical analysis (organic pollutants, waste water) for goverment and private industrial enterprises. We also developed a detergent agent for special application in mining industry.

 

As an assistant of Prof. Reto J. Strasser at the Bioenergetics Laboratory of the University of Geneva I had developed teaching and research duties, advice and guidance of diploma students and Erasmus student projects as well.

 

As researcher, I have developed an ecophysiology research project within the Swiss Canopy Crane Project facilities at Hofstetten, Basel, about the effects of CO2 enrichment on forest trees and reported as a main topic of my PhD thesis work. There is an important paper about this topic.

 

In collaboration with Murielle Eyletters, J.P. Delhaye from ULB Brussels and the Infrastructure Ministry of Belgium, I have studied the effects of city pollution on urban trees chlorophyll fluorescence. We used infrared airborne imaging for monitoring historically important urban trees over Brussels city and we found a linear correlation between infrared imaging and in situ chlorophyll fluorescence signals. There are two papers product of this study.

 

With Prof. Giuseppe Torzillo (Univ. of Florence, Italy) and Prof. Jiri Mazojidek (Trebon Microbiology Section, Academy of Science, Tchek Republic) we studied the influence of nutrient deficiencies on the induction of carotenoid production by the green algae Chlorella sp. No publication has been reported as an output of this work. Green algae are a rich source of carotenoids and its production represents an important commercial affair for Private industry business.

 

I have worked with Dr. Francisco Barja (Lab of Microbiology at the Univ. of Geneva) and Prof. Maria Fillat (Univ. of Zaragoza, Spain) on the effect of Lindane and Metilviologen (pesticide, herbicide) on the photosynthetic apparatus of Anabaena cyanobacteria.  With the students Marta Bueno and Idoia Alonso we investigated respectively the effect of herbicides on wild type Anabaena cultivars and the Fe deficiency effects on Mutant and Wild type Anabaena. Two papers are the product of this fruitful collaboration.

 

I have worked with Prof. Alberto Gonzalez and Prof. Jose Luis Sanchez (INIA and Univ. of Madrid, Spain) and Mr. Stancho Pavlov (Univ. of Burgas, Bulgaria) on the application of artificial neural networks for the classification of Pisum sativum L. (pea) plants according to their resistance to drought stress using Chlorophyll a fluorescence signals. The paper “Can machines recognize plant stress?” has been published as a result of this fruitful collaboration. With Prof. Gonzalez we have studied the influence of urban architecture on trees and bushes. We published a proceeding paper about this subject.

 

I won the prize BEST STUDENT POSTER in the 13^th Congress of the European Federation of Plant Physiology Societies (Heraklion, Crete, 2002) for my research work on the application of artificial neural networks to plant stress analysis.

 

I used our developed artificial neural network technique for analyzing the evolution of Rhizobium nodulation in Vigna unguiculata (cowpea) and as a result, I have developed a method for measuring Nitrogen content in cowpea plants based on their fast fluorescence kinetics. The experimental work was done by Mr. Patrick Schmitz (Diploma student at the Univ. of Geneva). We presented a poster about this work at the International Congress of Photosynthesis in Brisbane, Australia 2001 and one more poster at the EMEC3 Environmental Chemistry Congress held at Geneva in Dec. 2002. There is a publication about this work in reviewing period right now.

 

With Mr. Frederick Sinniger (Diploma student at the Univ. of Geneva) we studied the diurnal changes in Corals. We presented a poster at the Photosynthesis Congress in Brisbane, Australia in 2001.

 

I have worked with Prof. Lydia Serrano (Technological University of Barcelona, Spain) on the acclimation of Mediterranean plants to diurnal light and drought stress. We intent to demonstrate the application of neural networks for the identification of plant functional groups using ecophysiology experiments.

 

I have collaborated with Prof. R. Navarro (Univ. of Cordoba, Spain) to study the resistance of different Pinus halepensis procedences by chlorophyll fluorescence. A poster was presented in Murcia and a paper about this topic is on the way to be published. I helped Mr. Angel Blazquez (Univ. of Cordoba, Spain) to analyze its fluorescence data and as a result of this work he obtained his PhD degree.

 

I have worked with Prof. Francklin Rivas-Echeverría and Miss Anna Pérez-Méndez (Univ. of Merida, Venezuela) developing a new methodology for data analysis based on neural networks. As a result of this work, we submitted an article for publication to the WSEAS Neural Networks Conference that won the BEST PAPER Award of the WSEAS Congress held in Lisbon July 14-18 2005. We presented also a poster that won the BEST STUDENT POSTER Award. This collaboration is being extended to the study of Nitrogen fixation in leguminous plant varieties.

 

With Prof. V. Goltsev and Dr. Peter Lambrev we studied the dynamics of photosynthetic herbicides (Diuron, Atrazine) on whole Pisum plants. A paper about this work is being prepared.

 

I wrote the Biolyzer software package for analysis of Chlorophyll a fluorescence fast induction kinetics (Hansatech fluorometers) and the Spark software package for reflectance signals (UniSpec reflectometer). Today, my program Biolyzer is used in many laboratories worldwide. The versions 1 to 3 were freeware (freely available for non-profit research and academic purposes). The new version Biolyzer 5.0 is a professional software tool that can be characterized as a mature, high-level fluorescence analysis software tool, and an excellent cost-value effective investment. Available on request to [email protected], [email protected] See QuantumYield homepage.

 

I have developed a new program, Fluorimer 1.0, for analysis of fluorescence imaging experiments. In this software a completely new approach for fluorescence imaging is applied and a paper is going to appear about this subject. A patent also has been presented.