After winning the selection round at the International Physics Olympiad, he was admitted without any examination to Sofia University in 1973.

He defended his doctoral thesis on "Spectrometer for polarized neutrons and study of amorphous magnetic bands" in 1994.

In 1994 he became a member of the Union of the Democratic Forces and then chairman of its regional organization in the capital's Triaditsa district.

He finished second and received 9.62% of the votes but the GERB candidate Yordanka Fandakova was still re-elected as mayor in the first round of the election by reaching a majority result of 60.17%.

[7] His candidacy heavily opposed PP-DB candidate Vasil Terziev, whose controversial family background was criticized by Lilkov.

He also declared himself in opposition to the governing model of GERB, the party that had been in charge of Sofia for the past 18 years.