Hungarian Academy of Sciences

(Magyar Tudományos Akadémia), the highest scientific institution in Hungary. Founded in 1825. Located in Budapest.

Until 1949, the activity of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was limited to cultural, educational, and publishing work. It was reorganized in 1949 and is now under the jurisdiction of the government of the Hungarian People’s Republic. Its primary task is the development and coordination of the natural and social sciences in the country.

The Hungarian Academy of Sciences consists of ten divisions (1970): language and literature, history and philosophy, physical and mathematical sciences, agriculture, medicine, engineering, chemistry, biology, economics and law, and geology and geography; the Commission on Psychology has the status of a division. The academy has over 40 scientific research institutes; research work is carried on in more than 140 university subdepartments and other scientific centers with the aid of and under the direction of the academy.

In 1970, the academy had 188 active and corresponding members and 68 foreign members (including 20 Soviet scientists). The academy library (founded in 1826) had more than 680,000 volumes in 1969.

The academy publishes Acta (since 1950) in several series, the journal Magyar tudomány (since 1956), over 30 scientific periodicals in English, German, French, and Russian, and other publications. The academy is a member of many international organizations, including UNESCO and the International Council of Scientific Unions. The Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences concluded an agreement on scientific cooperation in 1958; it was indefinitely extended in 1961.