History of the Meteoroids conferences series
Content copied from the Meteoroids 2019 website, written by: Mária Hajduková, jr. and Mária Hajduková.
The first conference of the “Meteoroids” series, Meteoroids and their Parent Bodies, was organised by a group of scientists at the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava in 1992 and was dedicated to the 65th birthday of their team leader, Ľubor Kresák.
Many years have passed since then and this year we are celebrating the 10th meeting. This occasion has offered a great opportunity to retrace the events’ history and remember a group of Slovak scientists whose contribution to the subject has been considerable. To honour their achievements, the 10th meeting once again took place in Slovakia.
Ľubor Kresák (1927-1994) formed a very strong scientific group of astronomers in Bratislava (Slovakia; at the time Czechoslovakia), who worked in the field of solar system small bodies, and who played an important role in the world of astronomy during the second half of the last century. The astronomers from Kresák’s team, who pioneered the Meteoroids conferences in the early 90s, were Ján Štohl, Anton Hajduk and Vladimír Porubčan.
The first three Meteoroids meetings were held in Slovakia, a convenient place for scientists from both western countries and the east to meet. They started a great tradition of regular meetings of the community of meteor scientists and strengthened the cooperation between professionals and amateurs. Meteoroids moved outside Slovakia in 2001, and traveled to various corners of the world. The conference series undoubtedly helped faciltiate the growth of meteor science. More than 500 original research papers or review contributions have been published within the proceedings. Another important aspect of these meetings, apart from bringing together the results of the meteor research in many different countries, are the opportunities they offer for informal interactions between the scientists attending, which give rise to new collaborations. Iwan Williams summed up the first successful meeting with words which apply to all these meetings: The Meteoroids conferences offer high level science in a very friendly atmosphere.
| Meeting | Year, Date | Location | Chair/Co-chair of the LOC | Chair/Co-chair of the SOC | No. of participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1992 July 6–12 | Slovakia, Smolenice Castle | A. Hajduk | I.P. Williams, J. Štohl | 107 |
| 2. | 1994 Aug. 28–31 | Slovakia, Bratislava | A. Hajduk | V. Porubčan, I.P.Williams | 69 |
| 3. | 1998 Aug. 17–21 | Slovakia, Tatranská Lomnica | A. Hajduk | W.J. Baggaley, V. Porubčan | 84 |
| 4. | 2001 Aug. 6–10 | Sweden, Kiruna | A. Pellinen-Wannberg | V. Porubčan | 107 |
| 5. | 2004 Aug. 16–20 | Canada, London, Ontario | P. Brown, R. Hawkes | I. Mann | 86 |
| 6. | 2007 June 11–15 | Spain, Barcelona | J. M. Trigo-Rodríguez, J. Llorca | J. M. Trigo-Rodríguez | 115 |
| 7. | 2010 May 24–28 | USA, Colorado, Breckenridge | D. Janches | D. Janches, W. Cooke | 110 |
| 8 | 2013 Aug. 26–30 | Poland, Poznan | T. Jopek | T. Jopek, I.P. Williams, J. Watanabe | 103 |
| 9 | 2016 June 6–10 | Netherland, Noordwijk | D. Koschny | J. Borovička | 140 |
| 10 | 2019 June 17-21 | Slovakia, Bratislava | J. Tóth | D. Janches, J. Borovička | 129 |
| 11 | 2022 June 13-17 | USA, Huntville (virtual) | A. Moorhead | M. Campbell-Brown | |
| 12 | 2025 July 7-11 | Australia, Perth | E. Sansom, H. Devillepoix | P. Koten |
