International Astronomical Union to hold assembly in Prague in 2006

Johannes Kepler

Prague is getting ready for the 26th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, which is to take place in the Czech capital in two years' time. Several thousand astronomers from around the world are expected to meet in Prague, a city with a rich astronomical history going back to the mid-14th century.

Among the famous personalities of European astronomy and physics who spent time in Prague are for example, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. Other outstanding figures that resided in Prague are Christian Doppler - professor of mathematics at Prague Technical University, Ernst Mach who was appointed professor of experimental physics at Prague University in 1867 and spent nearly 30 years in Prague, and of course, Albert Einstein who once said he found in Prague "the necessary concentration for giving a more precise form to the basic idea of his general theory of relativity."