Ivan Yosifov Buresh was a Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n zoologist and entomologist who has been dubbed "the patriarch of Bulgarian biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

".

Ivan Buresh was born in Sofia

Sofia

Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

, the capital of the Principality of Bulgaria

Principality of Bulgaria

The Principality of Bulgaria was a self-governing entity created as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The preliminary treaty of San Stefano between the Russian Empire and the Porte , on March 3, had originally proposed a significantly larger Bulgarian territory: its...

, to the family of Czech zincographer

Zincography

Zincography was a planographic printing process that used zinc plates. Alois Senefelder first mentioned zinc's lithographic use as a substitute for Bavarian limestone in his 1801 English patent specifications . In 1834, the Frenchman Breugnot patented a zincographic printing process, producing...

 and photographer Josef Bureš who had settled in Bulgaria after the Liberation

Liberation of Bulgaria

In Bulgarian historiography, the term Liberation of Bulgaria is used to denote the events of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 that led to the re-establishment of Bulgarian state with the Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878, after the complete conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire, which...

 in 1878. Buresh finished high school in Sofia and studied natural science

Natural science

The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...

 at Charles University in Prague

Charles University in Prague

Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...

 and Sofia University

Sofia University

The St. Clement of Ohrid University of Sofia or Sofia University is the oldest higher education institution in Bulgaria, founded on 1 October 1888...

. He graduated in 1909 and continued his post-graduate education at the University of Munich under world-famous zoologist Richard Hertwig

Richard Hertwig

Richard Wilhelm Karl Theodor Ritter von Hertwig , also Richard Hertwig or Richard von Hertwig, was a German zoologist and professor of 50 years, notable as the first to describe zygote formation as the fusing of spermatozoa inside the membrane of an egg cell during fertilization.Richard Hertwig was...

 and Franz Theodor Doflein.

From 1914 on, Buresh was curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

 of the Royal Museum of Natural History

National Museum of Natural History (Bulgaria)

The National Museum of Natural History of Bulgaria is a museum of natural history located in Sofia, the capital of the country on "Tzar Osvoboditel" str. next to the Russian church...

. In 1918, he was promoted to director of the Royal Institutes of Natural Science, which included the Royal Museum of Natural History, the Sofia Zoo

Sofia Zoo

Sofia Zoo in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, was founded by royal decree on 1 May 1888, and is Bulgaria's oldest and largest zoological garden. It covers and, as of March 2006, housed 1,113 animals representing 244 species.-History:...

 and the Botanical Garden, among other institutions. He held that post until 1946. In 1926, he was admitted to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy is autonomous and has a Society of Academicians, Correspondent Members and Foreign Members...

 as a corresponding member; in 1929, he became a full academic member. From 1947 until his retirement in 1959, Buresh headed the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology. Buresh died in Sofia in 1980, aged 94.

Ivan Buresh took an interest in zoology in his school years. He published his first article on that subject in 1905; his body of work includes over 200 scientific and popular science articles. Although his main area of research was entomology, he also contributed to Bulgarian spelaeology, herpetology

Herpetology

Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians and reptiles...

 and botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

. Despite his close ties to both Tsar Ferdinand and Tsar Boris III

Boris III of Bulgaria

Boris III the Unifier, Tsar of Bulgaria , originally Boris Klemens Robert Maria Pius Ludwig Stanislaus Xaver , son of Ferdinand I, came to the throne in 1918 upon the abdication of his father, following the defeat of the Kingdom of Bulgaria during World War I...

, Ivan Buresh was never actively engaged in politics.