Brief information about SMS
Slovak Meteorological Society at the Slovak Academy of Sciences
The Slovak Meteorological Society (SMS) at the Slovak Academy of Sciences was established within the Czechoslovak Meteorological Society in 1959. The SMS is a community of scientists and professionals in meteorology, climatology and the related branches in the Slovak Republic. The main aim of the SMS activities is to develop collaboration within meteorologists and the other specialists as well as to disseminate information on meteorology and climatology among general public. The SMS consists of three regional branches (Western, Central and Eastern Slovakia with centres in Bratislava, Banská Bystrica and Košice). The Main Committee of the SMS is voted once in three years by the General Assembly of SMS. The seat of the SMS is in the Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute in Bratislava.
Well known Prof. Dr. Mikuláš Konček (1900-1982), who established the modern meteorology in Slovakia in 1939, was the first chairman of the SMS. He was also the first director of the Slovak State Meteorological Institute (from 1939 to 1949) and the first head of the Department of Astronomy, Geophysics and Meteorology at the Comenius University in Bratislava (from 1952 to 1970). The next SMS chairmen were Dr. Ferdinand Šamaj, Dr. Ivan Panenka, Dr. Dušan Závodský, Dr. Milan Lapin and lastly Dr. Miroslav Ondráš (since 1999). Due to the split of Czecho-Slovakia into two independent countries in January 1st, 1993, the former Czecho-Slovak Meteorological Society was divided into the Czech and the Slovak Meteorological Societies, but relations remained still quite close.
The number of the SMS members varies with the number of about 170 last years. Because of very small budget the SMS activities are focused mostly on organising of meteorological and climatological seminars, usually in collaboration with the Slovak Hydrometeor-ological Institute, Institute of Geophysics, Slovak Bioclimatological Society, Slovak National Climate Programme, etc. The expenses of the SMS Bulletin issuing cover about two third of the annual SMS budget (3 times a year, 50 pages and 220 pieces each). In this Bulletin the SMS members can publish scientific and other articles and the SMS Committee publishes there the basic information on the SMS activities.
In the history, there was close collaboration of the Slovak, Czech and Hungarian Meteorological Societies, mainly in organising of international conferences once in two years time. Serious financial difficulties caused interruption of this collaboration in 1992. The present collaboration among meteorological societies in the Central Europe is possible only at occasional contacts in other conferences. The SMS contributes also to the European Meteorological Societies Newsletter (issued in Météo-France).
Prepared by: Dr. Milan Lapin, vice president of SMS