Ivanka Nikolova is an associate professor at The Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She earned a master's degree in molecular biology and virology from the department of biology at Sofia University, St. Kl. Ohridski, in 1995. She obtained a PhD in virology in 2004 from The Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology. Since 2014, she has served a head of the laboratory of chemotherapy of enteroviral infectios and head of the department of virology at the Institute. The expertise of Nikolova is the field of molecular biology, virology, immunology and the study of the antiviral activity of natural substances and synthetic products in vitro. She is a winner of an award for the best work of a young Bulgarian microbiologist in 2004 from the Foundation Acad. Prof. Dr. Stefan Angelov and is a member of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria.