Alexander Georgiev Petrov (; 27 May 1948 Stara Zagora) is a Bulgarian professor of physics and a Fellow of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Biography A.G. Petrov was born in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. He has a master's degree in atomic physics from the Sofia University (1970) and holds a Ph.D. on liquid crystals from the Institute of Solid State Physics (1974). He has received a Doctor of Sciences (D.Sc.) degree in 1987, a full Professorship in 1990 and has been elected a Fellow of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 2003. Area The main area of his research is soft matter physics (liquid crystals, biophysics, biomolecular electronics and nanophysics). He works in the Institute of Solid State Physics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Research Petrov has investigated theoretically and experimentally dielectric, elastic, flexoelectric and surface properties of nematic liquid crystals with different types of molecular asymmetry. This achievement has applications in liquid-crystal optoelectronics. In the living matter physics he created the knowledge of bioflexoelectricity, including a new theoretical model for description of the elasticity and flexoelectricity of biological membranes from the general molecular asymmetry point of view. He has discovered gradient flexoelectric effect in nematic liquid crystals under the action of inhomogeneous electric fields (1971 - 1974); flexoelectric oscillations in nematic liquid crystals (1975 - 1979); direct flexoeffect in biological membrane with ion channels (1988 - 1993); helielectricity in chiral lyotropic lipid phases (aqueous and nonaqueous) (1988 – 1989); inverse flexoeffect of bilayer lipid membranes (1993); photoflexoeffect in photo-active membranes (1992 - 1994). Professional experience Director of the Institute of Solid State Physics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (since 1999 up to 2015) Head of Biomolecular Layers Laboratory, ISSP-BAS (1991-2008) Petrov is a Head of Soft Matter Physics Division of ISSP-BAS (since 2006 up to 2016). Awards Petrov has been awarded the Freedericksz Medal for outstanding contributions in the field of liquid crystal physics by the Russian Liquid Crystal Society (2004), the Outstanding Contribution to Science Annual Award of the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria (Scientist of the year 2007) and the Marin Drinov Sign of Honour of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences on a ribbon (2008). Publications Monograph The Lyotropic State of Matter. Molecular Physics and Living Matter Physics, A.G. Petrov, Gordon & Breach Science Publishers, L.-N.J. (1999), 549 pp. Selected papers А.G. Petrov, Y. G. Marinov, H.P. Hinov, L. Todorova, M. Dencheva-Zarkova, S. Sridevi, P.M.