For the first time in Bulgaria courses in inorganic and organic chemistry were taught at the newly established Physics and Mathematics department during the second academic year (1889/1890) of the University, at that time called Higher School. Nikola Dobrev and Pencho Raikov, educated in Jena, Geneva and Leipzig, became the first Bulgarian professors. For over 40 years that was the only department in the country in which students could read chemistry and graduate with a degree in that subject. The general structure of the Faculty of Chemistry was established in 1925 and the Departments of Inorganic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Organic and Inorganic Chemical Technology were founded. After the end of World War II courses in chemistry significantly expanded as the number of enrolled students increased due to the growing prestige of the profession and the demand for chemistry graduates. So, in 1962 the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics split into three separate faculties and the university education in chemistry was transferred to the independent Faculty of Chemistry. In 1973 the Department of Chemistry Education was founded, and in 1983, the Laboratory of Engineering Chemistry and Physics.

During its century-long history a number of outstanding scientists taught at the Faculty of Chemistry: Acad. Prof. Dimitar Ivanov, the founder of the Bulgarian school of organic chemistry, who obtained remarkable results in organo-metallic compounds; Prof. Zahari Karauglanov, the founder in 1924 of the first Department of Analytical Chemistry in Europe, who left an outstanding trace in electrochemical kinetics; Prof. Ivan Stranski and Acad. Rostislav Kaishev, the founders of the Bulgarian school of physical chemistry and the theory of crystal growth; Acad. Alexei Sheludko, famous for his achievements in the field of colloidal chemistry and a founder of the Bulgarian school of colloidal chemistry; Acad. Georgi Bliznakov, inorganic chemistry catalysis and crystallization processes with impurities, Prof. Dimitar Balarev, Prof. Nikola Penchev, Prof. Asen Zlatarov, etc.

Nowadays the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy is a respected and welcomed partner in most of the world’s centers for chemistry research and education. Most of its academic staff have specialized, worked and taught in the most prestigious universities in Europe and America. Their scientific works are published in the most renowned specialized scientific journals and are widely recognized in the scientific community.