In this issue, we feature two articles on the 120th anniversary of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Arts. The first, written by Luboš Velek, director of the Masaryk Institute and Archives, describes several predecessors of the ASCR. In his article, Antonín Kostlán of the Institute of the Contemporary History focuses on the origin and development of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1952-1992), which comprised research institutes, a learned society and a body of academicians and corresponding members. and Luboš Velek.
The 5m International Workshop on Astronomical X-Ray Optics, meeting in Prague December 10-13,2012, presented and discussed recent and future technologies for X-ray astronomy space missions. These missions require the development of mostly innovative technologies, and to discuss in detail prospects, results obtained to date and new ideas. Obviously, requirements of future large space X-ray astronomy missions are so demanding that a truly interdisciplinary approach and wide international collaboration is essential. and René Hudec.
A conference honored the late Prof. Zdeněk Švestka, one of the great defining personalities of twentieth-century solar physics. His main scientific interest focused on solar flares. During his year at Ondřejov, he became an expert in flare spectra. Later his interests extended into white-light flares, proton flares, and their radio signatures (type II and IV bursts), which were suggestive of shock-acceleration of particles. The conference, organized by the Astronomical Institute, took place on 23-27 June 2014 in Prague. Zdeněk Švestka, born on 30 September 1925 in Prague, passed away on 2 April 2013 in Bunschoten. and Petr Heinzel,Marian Karlický, František Fárník.