Gergana envisions guiding scientific discovery and talent development through a people-centered leadership style rooted in technical rigor. 

When Gergana Milkova was nine years old, her family immigrated to the United States from Bulgaria. Her parents left their promising careers as engineers behind in order to provide better educational opportunities for their children. The transition was challenging for Gergana, who recalls her struggles adapting from her Bulgarian classroom’s emphasis on structure to the American classroom’s focus on individual expression. Yet it was in these American classrooms that Gergana found her voice as she built confidence in her academic skills and problem-solving abilities.

Gergana earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Andrews University in 2019, where she discovered her passion for research that ultimately inspired her to pursue it as a career. After graduation, Gergana spent five years as a research scientist at McCormick & Company. There, she led key initiatives in taste modification by helping to develop the Optify Taste Modification platform. She earned first place in McCormick’s global innovation competition for developing software that standardized flavor formulation calculations in compliance with Food and Drug Administration guidelines. She also contributed to a patent for new types of menthol-based ingredients by creating digital tools to help analyze how their cooling profiles are perceived over time.

Now pursuing her PhD in chemistry at the University of Michigan, Gergana investigates how pollution from oil and gas extraction is impacting the rapidly warming Arctic environment. Her research aims to inform regional air quality policies and deepen understanding of environmental change in this critical ecosystem. Her laboratory’s principal investigator describes Gergana as highly curious and “motivated by complexity” rather than settling for easy answers. Gergana’s long-term goal is to become a chief science officer at a corporation. She envisions guiding scientific discovery and talent development through a people-centered leadership style rooted in technical rigor.

CEW+ supports Gergana’s steadfast pursuit of scientific inquiry and names her the Margaret E. Gnegy Scholar.