Over the past twenty years, changes in ownership structure have brought major changes to chemistry in Slovakia, as I learned during several years in top managerial positions in the Slovak Chemical Society (SCHS). SCHS ( www.schems.sk ), a former partner within the federally organised Czech chemical society, is affiliated with the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS). From 1989 on, both Slovak and foreign individuals and groups started privatising key national enterprises in an effort to either maintain and develop existing business activities or snuff them out through restructuring in order to procure real estate or eliminate competition. This al...