The twenty-eight years old Nikola Zlatanov, holder of Master’s degree and a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, won the award “the 2010 Youngest Scientist”, awarded by the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, in recognition of high-level scientific achievements.

Long lasting and most worthy investment is the investment in education and science. The future of our science lies in the duly support of all young people dealing with science and in the verification of their accomplishments. Therefore, as President of the Republic of Macedonia, through the selection process and by awarding the title "The Youngest Scientist”, I would like to give a contribution and support to the development of the young scientific thought, said the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, at the awarding ceremony.


The President stressed that science and new ideas are an opportunity for our citizens to compete equally with the rest of the world because they do not recognize boundaries, as proven by the winner of this award. Ideas do not recognize limits, smaller or larger countries, developed or less developed economies, richer or poorer, more powerful or weak states. No one can restrict or deprive us of the natural right to liberty and creative thought. Hence, our citizens can equally compete in skills, knowledge, creativity and innovation with the rest of the world, said the Macedonian President. President Ivanov stressed that he is glad that Zlatanov chose to continue his work in Macedonia after his PhD studies in Canada and expressed hope that this example would be followed by other young scientists by making a decision, as he said, to create under the Macedonian sun.


Nikola Zlatanov, after receiving the award, said that he wishes an academic front to be opened in Macedonia by increasing the number of scientific publications in reputable journals that, along with the development of scientific thought, will raise the development level of the Macedonian society. When either the academic or the social aspect starts to stimulate the other aspect, a reversible process is developed of stimulating and supplementing each other. However, one has to initiate this, either the society by offering quality conditions for research, or the researchers who, being enthusiasts, will be an initial burst of a rapid social development, said Zlatanov.



The project “The Youngest Scientist” is being implemented in order to give greater support to science, scientific institutions and young scientists, as well as to find ways to stimulate investments in science. The idea is through this project to establish a tradition for selection of the youngest scientist in the coming years in order to boost young scientific and research thought in the Republic of Macedonia. 17 young scientists with 20 scientific papers filed their applications at the published call for participation.



Nikola Zlatanov was born in 1983. He graduated in 2007, received a Master’s degree in 2010 at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius. In the period November 2008-June 2010 he was employed in MANU and since September 2010 he is a PhD candidate and assistant researcher at the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Faculty of British Columbia
in Vancouver, Canada where he received the most prestigious award granted for PhD candidates. His current research interests are in the general field of wireless telecommunications.