Dr. Elena Vchkova Bebekovska is an astronomer and assistant professor at the Institute of Physics in Ss Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, where, in 2022, she accomplished her Ph.D. studies by defending her thesis in astronomy.
Dr. Vchkova graduated as B.Sc. in “Physics” (2008) and M.Sc. in “Astronomy and Astrophysics” (2009) from the Faculty of Physics at the Sofia University “St. Kl. Ohridski” in Sofia, Bulgaria.
In the last 15 years, she has been working on modeling Small Solar System Objects, using photometric and spectroscopic data from ground-based telescopes and the GAIA mission. Through the years, she has done remote observations using the telescopes at AS Vidojevica in Serbia, as well as on-site observations using the telescopes at Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory in Bulgaria. Her work has been presented at international conferences and published in refereed journals.
As an assistant professor at her university, Elena gives lectures in observational astronomy, theory of relativity, and general physics, and leads the practical and numerical exercises in mechanics, general astronomy, and optics. Part of her work, Elena dedicates to the popularisation of Physics and Astronomy sciences among high school students in her country. She organized and gave popular lectures at the winter astronomical school for more than one decade, has taken part as a lecturer in school for young physicists, and has written popular articles in the Astronomical Almanac, a yearly journal published for the wider community in North Macedonia. As a member of the Society of Physicists of Macedonia, she works in the team organizing the national physics and astronomy olympiads.
Since last year, Elena has been an external collaborator in the EXO-RESTART team, sharing her experience and training her students to work with the EXOSTRIKER toolkit.