ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Honorable Elena Poptodorova, the ambassador from the Republic of Bulgaria to the United States, is visiting the Cornell University campus, Feb. 10-12, to deliver public lectures and meet with community members, university students, faculty members and administrators.

On Wednesday, Feb. 11, the Bulgarian ambassador will give a Berger International Speaker Series lecture, titled "The Rule of Law in Bulgaria -- An Emerging Democracy: New Concepts, New Legal Instruments and New Practices," in Room G85 of Cornell Law School's Myron Taylor Hall at 6 p.m. On Thursday, Feb. 12, she will address the topic "A View From the 'New Europe'" at the Peace Studies Seminar of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies in G08 Uris Hall at 12:15 p.m. The ambassador also will speak in visiting lecturer Elena Iankova's International Political Risk Management class at the Johnson Graduate School of Management in Sage Hall's Ramin Parlor, Feb. 12 at 2:55 p.m. All of these talks are free and open to the public. The Law School and the Einaudi Center are the principal sponsors of Poptodorova's visit to Cornell.

Among the ambassador's other activities on campus will be a dessert reception for Bulgarians in the greater Ithaca community, sponsored by the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, in the A.D. White House, Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 8 p.m. On Feb. 11 at 1 p.m., the ambassador will climb McGraw Tower to see the chimes and hear a rendition of the Bulgarian National Anthem played by university chimesmasters during the afternoon concert at 1:10 p.m.

During her Cornell visit, Poptodorova will have discussions with students, faculty members and administrators at: the Einaudi Center; the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; the Laboratory for Aegean and Near Eastern Dendrochronology; the Program on Gender and Global Change and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies; the Department of Horticultural Studies at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y.; the Law School; the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs; and Cornell Abroad. She also with meet with Cornell President Jeffrey Lehman and Provost Biddy Martin.

Poptodorova became Bulgaria's ambassador to the United States in February 2002. Her prior positions included director of the Directorate of International Organizations and Human Rights (2001-02), member of the Bulgarian parliament (1990-2001) and various diplomatic posts in Rome and San Marino (1975-1990). She also served as vice chair of the Bulgarian delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union and as a member of the Coordinating Committee of Women Parliamentarians of IPU, responsible for Eastern and Central Europe. From 1994 to 1997, she served as a member of the Bulgarian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. She holds degrees from the University of Sofia and the University of National and World Economy in Sofia.

For more information about Poptodorova's visit, contact Victor Mikov, president of the Bulgarian Club at Cornell, at (607) 262-0102 or vam24@cornell.edu .