Hristina joined the Center for Underwater Archeology (CUA) in 1981 and was its director from 1988 to 2016. The fruits of her long-term efforts are the Center’s significant and large-scale projects – the studies under the Getika program in Kavarna, the first stratigraphic excavations in Bulgaria – the submerged settlements in the waters off Kiten, Sozopol and Ropotamo, the study of a post-medieval ship in the southern Bay of Kiten, the numerous interdisciplinary studies on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, which began at the end of the 80s of the 20th century, ranks the Center among the first in this field, the survey of the Bulgarian waters along the route of the South Stream gas pipeline, the underwater predictive modelling project – one of the few similar in the world, during which the first worldwide bathymetric lidar scan for the needs of archaeology was also carried out. On this occasion, CUA was awarded the prize of ESRI-Bulgaria and was awarded first place in the category “Academy” for the application of the aerial bathymetry system and the first use of LiDAR data for the purposes of archaeological research.
Hristina Angelova organizes and conducts one of the largest scientific international symposiums on underwater archaeology in Sozopol – Thrace-Pontica. Among the participants are the most prominent researchers in the field of world underwater archaeology – George Bass, Honor Frost, Gerhard Kapiten, David French, Jan Bouzek, John Hind, Dimitrios Samsaris, and Roland Paskoff. Since 2015, Hristina Angelova has been the head of the Bulgarian team for the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP), implemented jointly with the Center for Maritime Archeology at the University of Southampton (Great Britain), the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the BAS, the University of Connecticut (USA), and funded by Julia and Hans Rausing through the Expedition and Education Foundation, UK. In fact, it is the first largest maritime archaeological expedition ever conducted in the world.
In 2001, Hristina Angelova saves the CUA from termination and made it possible for the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage to be recognized, accepted and ratified by law by the Bulgarian state. Thanks to her efforts and work, to date there are all legal and by-laws that take into account the underwater cultural heritage under water, and by virtue of under which the Center guides and implements the overall policy of the state for the protection of the heritage in all water spaces of the Republic of Bulgaria. Thanks to her, today the work of the Center is in step with all the modern trends methodologies and achievements of the underwater archaeology, which she knew well and to which she constantly strived. She was a founder and a pioneer! She was setting standards!
On 18.05.2016, Hristina Angelova was awarded the Ministry of Culture “Golden Age” distinction – a star for outstanding contribution to the Bulgarian culture.