The Academy Assembly, the Academy of Science´s highest body responsible for the highest priority decisions related to the ASCR, held its XXXIX meeting on December 16, 2011. Among invited guests were Petr Fiala, the Prime Minister´s Chief Science Advisor; Karel Pospíšil, Head of Board of Public Applied Research Institutions; Václav Pačes, President of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic; Rudolf Zahradník, Honorary President of the ASCR; Helena Illnerová, former President of the ASCR; Václav Hampl, Rector of Charles University of Prague; Přemysl Sobotka, First Vice-President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and Vladimír Haasz, Vice-Chairperson of the R&D Council of the Czech Republic, and others. The main agenda item of this meeting was discussion the results of the Evaluation of Academy Instituties. and Petr Fiala.
The article describes fundamental and application results obtained in the Department of Quantum Electronics of the Institute of Radio-Engineering and Electronics (IRE) of Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Prague. The early success in detection of the Doppler effect of radiation reflected from the first satellite orbiting the Earth - Sputnik (1957) was in the Department followed by systematic work in the area of ammonia masers, both 14NH3 and 15NH3 (1963-72). Short information is given on the first graduate courses in quantum electronics (1963-64) organized by the Department. Department's program of laser development and applications is discussed in details. The results of four key research projects are reported in the article, i.e., (a) ruby laser and its application in ophthalmology (including the first laser surgery of retina carried out in our laboratory), (b) carbon dioxide IR lasers, (c) UV-Vis gas lasers (blue He-Cd laser, near-ultraviolet nitrogen laser), and (d) tunable dye lasers. Unfortunately, the politically motivated dissolution of the Department in early seventies ended all the promising programs., Jan Blabla, Viktor Trkal., Obsahuje bibliografii, and V anglickém názvu uvedeno chybně Quatum - správně = Quantum