Professor Dr. Sc. Konstantin Terytze - Doctor Honoris Causa of the National Center for Agrarian Sciences - BulgariaThe Scientific Council of the Bulgarian National Center for Agrarian Sciences on his meeting held November 7, 2003 awarded the degree "Doctor Honoris Causa"to Prof. Dr. Dr. Konstantin Terytze (Germany)
Prof. Konsantin Terytze was born on 19 September 1954 in Varatic. In 1976 he obtains diploma on biochemistry in the Governmental University of Chisinau, Republic of Moldova. During the 1976 - 1978 he works as a researcher in the Institute for Biological Methods for Plant Protection in Chisinau. He graduated from the Humboldt University with Ph.D. in biological methods of plant protection in 1982. Later on, between 1985 - 1991 he works in the Institute of Geography and Geoecology in the Berlin Academy of Science as a deputy director of the laboratory. His research efforts during that period are directed towards development of chemical and ecotoxicological methods for soil and water quality assessment. Since 1991 he works in the Free University in Berlin, Department of Earth Sciences, where he is a lecturer on Environmental Chemistry and Soil Ecology. Here he obtained Dr. Sc. Nat. degree in Ecological chemistry. Since 1995 he is a Professor on Geoecology at the Free University - Berlin, where he is presently working. Together with his University duties he is a head of a working group in performing scientific projects on geoecology and environmental organic chemistry. In the same time he is working in Federal Environmental Agency (Germany), where he is a deputy head of the Department of Soil ecology and Soil quality. Some additional scientific activities of Prof. Dr. Sc. Konstantin Terytze can be listed as follows.
• Head of the group "Analytical methods in soil protection" at Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and Federal Environmental Agency of Germany
• Head of sector committee on chemistry of DAP ( German Accreditation System for Testing)
• Head a working group "Soil and Site Assessment" of ISO/TC 190 "Soil Quality"
• Member of several working groups of projects for evaluation of the environment contamination and technologies for remediation.
Since 1997 he is a member of the Moldovian Academy of Science.
The activities of Prof. Dr. Sc. Konstantin Terytze cover four main directions:
• Environmental chemistry, ecotoxicology, geoecology and soil ecology;
• Standardization and harmonization of soil quality investigations;
• Background and Reference Values for Soils, Risk assessment of Contaminated Soils
• Good laboratory practices, Quality Systems, Accreditation and Audits in the field of Environmental quality.
The main achievements of Prof. Dr. Sc. K. Terytze in the above mentioned fields of activities can be summarized as follows:
• Development of a system for ecotoxicological testing directed for determination of critical thresholds for organic and inorganic contaminants in soil and plants;
• Development of a method for derivation of numerical limit values for organic and non-organic pollutants in the soil, based on the tolerant concentration and transfer coefficient of the pollutant in the testing plants.
• Assessment the risk of the polluted soil based on the precautionary, trigger and action values of the contaminants in the soil.
• Producing of original data on soil pollution based on investigations of the polluted soil and sites.
• Identification of trends of soil contamination with organic/non organic substances and assessment of the quality of measurements.
Significant are the achievements of Prof. K. Terytze connected with harmonization of the methods for sampling, preparation and analysis of samples from soil, water and plants, as well as methods for risk assessment in the EC countries. This is among the most actual scopes of researches since 1990, when starts the access of the Central and Eastern European countries to EU.
The applied national or local methods for soil and plant analysis till now, as a rule, give results, which are not compatible with the same received in other countries and put obstacle to use unified system for environment monitoring. For these reasons in the beginning of 90s German government accepts a special programme and supports scientific projects, directed towards harmonization of the methods and standards of the candidate countries with those accepted in EU. In the area of environmental protection most of this projects have been coordinated by Prof. Terytze. The results from these projects have been published in a number of the monographs pointed below:
• Methods in Soil Protection used in Poland, Slovakia, The Czech Republic and Hungary (1996)
• Harmonization of soil investigation methods in Hungary (1997)
• Harmonization of soil investigation methods within the framework of co-operation with countries in Central and Eastern Europe (1998)
Summary of the results received in the frame of this programme was made in 2001, when in Sofia was held International Workshop entitled: Assessment of the Quality of Contaminated Soils and Sites in Central and eastern European Countries (CEEC) and New Independent states (NIS). The presented papers have been published in proceeding edited by Prof. Terytze.
Since 1994 up to now Prof. Terytze have been involved in the implementation of 8 projects for soil protection in Bulgaria, part of which funded by the German Federal Ministry of Environment from one hand, and on the other hand by the Ministry of Environment and Waters of Bulgaria. From Bulgarian side these projects weave performed with participation of three organizations including: the Agency of Environment - 3 projects, Institute of Soil Science - 1 project, Institute for Sustainable Development - 4 projects. The results have been published in the form of special reports and in scientific journals. Here are presented some of the most important titles:
• Guidelines for regional and urban soil protection activities with the Republic of Bulgaria (1994)
• Judgment of soil strain and its economic effects in Bulgaria (1995).
• Harmonization of the methods for the investigation of heavy metal pollution of soils and the assessment of criteria for soil protection (1995)
• Trigger and Action values for heavy metals and POPs in soil of Bulgaria (1999)
• Background and precaution values of heavy metals in the soil of Bulgaria (2000)
• Monitoring of persistent organic pollutants in the soil of Bulgaria (2001)
It has to be mentioned the Doctoral dissertation thesis of a Ph.D. student from Bulgaria titled: "Heavy metals and priority organic pollutants in soil of Bulgaria". Prof. K. Terytze was a supervisor and the thesis and the project was successfully completed in 2001.
At present Prof. K. Terytze participate a project for determination of trigger and action values for heavy metals in Bulgarian soils, depending on land use and receptors types for protection.
These projects mentioned aboveare of great importance for Bulgaria. Through them the country practically accepts the European standards connected with risk assessment for soil pollution and the impact of pollutants in soil on plants, groundwater, animals and humans. These standards are on risk based and can be estimated as a step towards the integration of our national policy and decision making regarding soil and water protection in accordance with the requirements of the EU. Prof. Terytze has a leading role in the performance of these projects, particularly in defining of the conceptual and methodological frame, as well as in evaluation of the results.
Prof. Terytze is author or co-author of more than 190 scientific publication and papers, including 12 monographs. Almost all of them are in the field of the applied ecology. They contain original data obtained by using scientific research methods. He is well known among the scientists in Germany, other European countries and all over the world with his original ideas, precise experiments and the achieved results. Especially for Central and Eastern European countries he is among the outstanding persons with great influence for the development of scientific and applied research in the area of soil and environment protection. He has exceptional working capacity and unbelievable enthusiasm for his subject and for research. His working languages are German, Russian, English and on Moldovian.
Prof. Terytze is one of the few foreign scientists, who during the last 10 years persistently supported contacts with the scientific community in Bulgaria. The position he holds in Germany, as well as in many international organizations makes him especially authoritative and perspective. The honorary title Doctor Honoris Causa could be considered as acknowledgment of his efforts for development of scientific co-operation with Bulgaria. This title could have a more practical sense and could be defined as a step for creation of Bulgarian lobby among the scientific community in Germany in the area of applied ecology and agriculture, which can be used for further integration with other German institutions. This is especially important for the development of joint research project with participation of both countries, as well as other European partners, connected with the following areas:
- Harmonization and standardization efforts for sampling sample treatment, samples analysis of soils and data evaluation in the efforts to the future members of EU;
- Assessment of the soil quality, harmonization of strategies for developing of soil values for priority pollutants ( ISO TC "Soil Risk Assessment");
- Generation of data on the current status of soil contamination as a function of the magnitude of contamination, the type of land use and parent material involved in soil information;
- Improving knowledge of the contents and dynamics of substances in soils from background territories of different geographical regions;
- Tracing trends in soil contamination by environmental chemicals and monitoring the effectiveness of initiated measurements;
- Aquisitation of knowledge of the effect and behavior of the substances under different conditions (type of ecosystem, input patterns, pedological, geographical and climatic situation);
- Accreditation and good laboratory praxis in the field of environmental protection;
- Initiation and care of Dissertation projects in the field of environmental protection with Republic Bulgaria.
From 2001 Prof. K. Terytze became a member of the Editorial Board of Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science.
We hope the above listed field of activities will be developed on the base of close cooperation with the National Center of Agrarian Sciences of Republic of Bulgaria - the expectations are that Prof. Dr.Dr. Konstantin Terytze will play a leading role in these perspective
Prof. Dr. Sc. Ivan Atanassov