Dr Greg Graffin visits the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

On July 10, 2026, Dr Greg Graffin visited the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences at the invitation of Assoc. Prof. Tihomir Stefanov, Deputy Director of the museum. Dr Graffin holds a PhD in Zoology from Cornell University and is a professor of natural sciences at the University of California and Cornell University. His scientific interests are in the field of evolutionary biology and paleontology. In addition to being a zoologist, Dr Graffin is the vocalist and co-founder of the band Bad Religion, which headlined the sixth edition of the Midalidare Rock In The Wine Valley International Rock Festival, which this year took place from July 10 to 12.

The two of them toured the new storage facilities for the scientific collections, built with European funding under the DiSSCo project, where Assoc. Prof. Stefanov introduced him in detail to the ichthyological collections. The scientists exchanged information about their research projects related to modern methods for studying biodiversity and its conservation.

They then visited the museum’s exhibition and shared their experience as science communicators and connecting science with the broader public debate in promoting scientific topics, and in particular the theory of evolution, as well as modern hypotheses about the origin of life.

Dr Graffin and Assoc. Prof. Stefanov gave an interview for bTV: https://btvnovinite.bg/bulgaria/vokalistat-na-bad-religion-poseti-parvo-muzej-predi-da-izleze-na-scenata.html.