PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ventzeslav Valev

Also known as Ventsislav Valev

Ventzeslav Valev is a pattern recognition researcher whose work on learning Boolean formulas led to non-reducible descriptors, a method for choosing features when supervised classifiers work on binary data. After master's degrees in computer science and mathematics in Wroclaw, he earned a PhD in Moscow in 1979 under Yuri Zhuravlev and a Doctor of Mathematical Science degree at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1995. The International Association for Pattern Recognition named him a Fellow in 1998 for contributions to pattern recognition theory and for service to the association. He illustrated the approach with recognition of Arabic numerals and of QRS complexes in electrocardiograms. At the Institute he was elected full professor in 2002 and associated member in 2010, and in 2022 he co-authored a paper linking typical testors and non-reducible descriptors.

Timeline

  1. By 1979

    Degrees in Poland and Moscow

    He earns M.Sc. degrees in computer science from the Wroclaw University of Technology and in mathematics from the University of Wroclaw, then a PhD in computer science at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow in 1979. His dissertation, Multidimensional Pattern Recognition Problems, is advised by Yuri Ivanovich Zhuravlev.

  2. 1992

    Learning Boolean formulas at ICPR

    In 1992, he and Petia Radeva Ivanova co-author A Method of Solving Pattern or Image recognition Problems by Learning Boolean Formulas, a chapter in the proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Pattern Recognition in The Hague.

  3. 1995

    Doctor of Mathematical Science

    He earns the Doctor of Mathematical Science degree in mathematical informatics from the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia in 1995. His dissertation is Mathematical Models for Pattern Recognition.

  4. 1998

    An IAPR Fellowship

    The International Association for Pattern Recognition names him a Fellow in 1998 for contributions to pattern recognition theory and for service to IAPR.

  5. 2002

    Full professor in Sofia

    He is elected Full Professor at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 2002.

  6. 2010

    Associated member of the Institute

    He is elected Associated Member of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics in 2010. His career includes appointments at the University of Iowa, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Saint Louis University.

  7. May 2013

    A seminar at Concordia

    In May 2013, he gives a seminar at Concordia University, From Features to Predicates or From Symptoms to Syndromes in Supervised Pattern Recognition. The talk covers supervised pattern recognition with binary features, using Boolean formulas called non-reducible descriptors, and illustrates the approach with recognition of Arabic numerals and of QRS complexes in electrocardiograms.

  8. 2022

    Typical testors and descriptors

    In 2022, he co-authors Taking Advantage of Typical Testor Algorithms for Computing Non-reducible Descriptors with Manuel Lazo-Cortés, José Martínez-Trinidad, J. Carrasco-Ochoa, Mohammad Shamshiri and Adam Krzyżak, in the proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods. The paper shows how algorithms for computing typical testors can compute non-reducible descriptors.

Career

  1. From 2002Bulgarian Academy of SciencesFull Professor, Associated Member

Education

  1. 1995Bulgarian Academy of SciencesDoctor of Mathematical Science
  2. 1979Russian Academy of SciencesPhD
  3. Wrocław University of TechnologyM.Sc.
  4. University of WrocławM.Sc.

From the biography.

  1. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Iowa. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI each year from 1955 to 2025, tracing the shift from university labs to companies.
  4. The United States employs an estimated 48% of people shaping AIWe estimate where the people shaping AI work today, how universities, companies and research institutes split across countries, and how country shares have changed since the 1960s.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Seminar: From Features to Predicates or From Symptoms to Syndromes in Supervised Pattern Recognition | News - Concordia University concordia.ca. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Ventzeslav Valev - The Mathematics Genealogy Project mathgenealogy.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. A Method of Solving Pattern or Image recognition Problems by Learning Boolean Formulas portalrecerca.uab.cat. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Alphabetical List of IAPR Fellows – International Association for Pattern Recognition iapr.org. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Taking Advantage of Typical Testor Algorithms for Computing Non-reducible Descriptors scitepress.org. Checked 20 October 2026.