Prof. Vasilka Tapkova-Zaimova was born on August 7, 1924 in Sofia. She graduated from the French College (1943) and Classical Philology at Sofia University (1947). She began working as a research associate at the Institute of History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Greek and Latin sources on Bulgarian history, specializing in Leningrad, Moscow and Paris, becoming one of the founders of the Institute of Balkan Studies at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, where she worked from 1964 to 1989. She is a member of a number of Bulgarian and international scientific associations. She lectures at many Bulgarian and foreign universities. Vasilka Tapkova-Zaimova participated in the preparation of 11 volumes of Greek and 2 volumes of Latin sources on Bulgarian history. The main thematic areas in her research work are: ethnogenesis of the Balkan peoples; historical-geographical and demographic problems of the Bulgarian lands during the Middle Ages; political ideology and church organization of medieval Bulgaria; Byzantine-Balkan cultural contacts and interactions; genesis and development of the Cyril and Methodius work; historical and apocalyptic literature in Byzantium and Bulgaria; the cult of St. Dimitar of Thessaloniki and others. In 1971 Prof. V. Tapkova-Zaimova was awarded the Cyril and Methodius Prize of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and in 1995 - the Order of Academic Palms of the French Academy. Prof. Anisava Miltenova (From: Cyril and Methodius Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. Sofia, 2003, pp. 213–216) "