Iwan Nikola Stranski

Ivan Nikolov Stranski (Bulgarian: Иван Николов Странски; German: Iwan Nicolá Stranski; 2 January 1897 – 1979) was a Bulgarian physical chemist.

The founder of the Bulgarian school of physical chemistry, Stranski is considered the father of crystal growth research. Stranski headed the departments of physical chemistry at Sofia University and the Technical University of Berlin, of which he was also rector. The Stranski-Krastanov growth and the Kossel-Stranski model have been named after Ivan Stranski.

Ivan Stranski was born in Sofia, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria, as the third child of Nikola Stranski, pharmacist to the royal court, and his wife Maria Krohn, a Baltic German. Ever since his childhood he suffered from bone tuberculosis, an incurable disease at the time. Stranski finished the First Sofia High School for Boys. Seeking ways to fight the illness, Stranski decided to study medicine, though he returned to Bulgaria disappointed after a year of studies in Vienna. He graduated from Sofia University in 1922, majoring in chemistry, and acquired a doctor's degree in Berlin under Paul Günther with a dissertation on X-ray spectroscopy. In 1925, Stranski joined Sofia University's newly established Department of Physical Chemistry of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics as a reader, becoming the first reader of physical chemistry in the country. By 1929, he was promoted to associate professor and by 1937 he was a regular professor at Sofia University. Stranski attracted prominent scientists such as Rostislav Kaishev and Lyubomir Krastanov to the department.

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