Theodora Raykova-Kovacheva (1893-1963)

Born in Sofia from Bulgarian father and German mother. Graduated in Chemistry at the Sofia University (1916). In 1918, with the intercession of her father Prof. Pentcho Raykov, was appointed as his Assistant Professor in Chemistry – as the first female assistant at the Sofia University. Specialized in Germany (1922) and Vienna (1931), published in the leading German scientific journals Zeitschrift für analytische Chemie and the Deutsche Chemische Geselschaft (1929-1931). Member of the Sofia Chemical Society and the Union of Bulgarian Chemists, elected as a delegate of their conferences, edited the Chemistry and Industry journal. Despite her successful career, she had got obstructions in the Sofia University: The Senate had repeatedly voted against the renewal of her term contracts (1928, 1930); colleagues complained about her reassignment. In mass layoffs of assistants in the summer of 1932 Kovacheva was fired. Later she accused for his dismissal Prof. Dimitar Ivanov, who had opposed her, who put obstacles in her specialization abroad, and who could not tolerate people who have shown that can operate independently in science. In 1938 Kovacheva’s method for detecting the presence of strontium in barium was included in the table of the International Commission for the New Analytical Reactions and Reagents. After her dismissal, she remained permanently outside of science, working in a private laboratory for the production of women’s cosmetics.