We are organising two panels with prominent panellists:
1) A Natural Language Processing panel, with highly experienced international panellists:
Prof. Ruslan Mitkov (Lancaster University, United Kingdom/ University of Alicante, Spain)
Prof. Ruslan Mitkov is Professor at Lancaster University, also Distinguished Professor at the University of Alicante, Spain. Prof. Mitkov is author of the monograph Anaphora Resolution (Longman) and sole editor of both editions of The Oxford Handbook of Computational Linguistics (Oxford University Press), hailed as the most successful Oxford Handbook to date. His current prestigious roles include Executive Editor of the journal Natural Language Processing (formerly the Journal of Natural Language Engineering), published by Cambridge University Press, and Editor-in-Chief of the Natural Language Processing book series at John Benjamins. He has also edited more than 15 volumes published by Springer and John Benjamins.
Prof. Mitkov's extensively cited research comprises more than 350 publications spanning a wide range of NLP and Translation Technology topics, with his latest work on readability covering under-resourced languages such as Moroccan Darija and conceptual (rather than linguistic) readability estimation, applied to Modern Standard Arabic.
Prof. Mitkov has been invited as a keynote speaker at more than 250 international conferences (including 30 keynote addresses in 2025 alone) and is, or has been, Chair of more than 80 conferences.
In recognition of his outstanding professional and research achievements, Prof. Mitkov has been awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on three occasions.
For further information: https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/mitkov/
Prof. Constantin Orasan (University of Surrey, United Kingdom)
Dr. Constantin Orasan is Professor of Language and Translation Technologies at the University of Surrey and a Fellow of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence. He has over 25 years of experience in the fields of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Translation Technologies, Artificial Intelligence and NLP for text accessibility. He is currently leading an EPSRC-funded research project on making science more accessible and serves as Co-Director of the AI-enabled Digital Accessibility (ADA) Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarships Network. His current research related to the CLEAR-TEXT workshop focuses to how to use Large Language Models to assess the accessibility of texts and to make them more accessible.
For further information: https://dinel.org.uk
Dr. Dimitar Kazakov (University of York, United Kingdom)
Dr Dimitar Kazakov is a Reader (Associate Professor) at the University of York, where he has been teaching and conducting research in artificial intelligence for over 25 years. His research interests include machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), language learning and evolution, multi-agent systems, and applications of AI in finance and healthcare. He holds a PhD in AI and Biocybernetics from the Czech Technical University in Prague and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
For further information: https://www.cs.york.ac.uk/people/kazakov
Dr. Matthew Shardlow (Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom)
Dr. Matthew Shardlow is a Reader in Natural Language Processing in the Department of Computing and Mathematics at Manchester Metropolitan University. His research interests lie in the field of natural language processing and more recently generative AI. He has previously worked on text accessibility topics including lexical complexity prediction, cross-lingual text simplification and lexical simplification, producing several benchmark datasets. More recently, he has explored new topics such as the phenomena of consciousness and anthropomorphisation in association to LLMs; learning representations for NLP tasks; as well as collaborating with industry on the application of NLP to the automotive domain. He currently holds research projects across charities, local government and academia, including the recent Translation Is Not Enough (TINE) multinational project, which seeks to build accessibility-focussed machine translation technology. He is an organiser of the Text Simplification, Accessibility and Readability workshop (2022-2026) and three shared tasks on lexical complexity prediction and simplification (SemEval-2021, TSAR-2022, BEA-2024). He was previously a member of the National Centre for Text Mining working on interoperable infrastructures under Horizon 2020 and studied an EPSRC-funded PhD at the University of Manchester.
For further information: https://www.mmu.ac.uk/staff/profile/dr-matthew-shardlow
2) A panel with key representatives from different fields in Bulgaria:
Prof. Tatyana Angelova (Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Bulgaria)
Prof. Tatyana Angelova is a Bulgarian scholar and university professor specializing in Bulgarian language education, language teaching methodology, and the development of communicative and literacy skills. Her research focuses on contemporary approaches to language learning and effective communication, with particular attention to how language education can foster clarity, comprehension, and confident language use.
Prof. Andreana Eftimova (Sofia University, Bulgaria)
Prof. Eftimova is a linguist and professor at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, specializing in media language, stylistics, and communication. Her research explores contemporary Bulgarian language, media discourse, and the ways linguistic choices shape meaning, clarity, and public communication.
Assoc. Prof. Diana Dimitrova ("St. Cyril and St. Methodius" University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria)
Assoc. Prof. Dimitrova is a lecturer at the Department of Pedagogy, Faculty of Education, St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo. Head of the "Young Researcher" Student Club for extracurricular activities for undergraduate and doctoral students in pedagogical majors at the Faculty of Education, University of Veliko Tarnovo. Her professional and research interests are focused on the practical vocational training of future primary school teachers, preparing undergraduate and PhD students for research in the field of Pedagogy, inclusive and intercultural education, and the STEM approach in primary education.
Martina Hadzhieva (teacher)
Martina Hadzhieva is an English teacher at Bacho Kiro Primary School in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. For the past two years, she has also been a cooperative teacher at the University of Veliko Tarnovo, where she supports and mentors students during their teaching practice, contributing to their professional development. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Primary School Pedagogy and Foreign Language and a Master’s degree in English Philology, Linguistics and Translation. Her professional interests include foreign language teaching at the primary level and innovative and interactive approaches to language learning.