The development of research in physiology, ecology, biochemistiy and biophysics of photosynthesis of algae and higher plants at the territory of Czechoslovakia is reviewed starting with ideas of the 17* century. Individual photosynthetic studies in the second half of the 19* and the first half of the 20* centiuy were followed by a most rapid development of photosynthetic research teams in Czechoslovakia mainly in die sixties. Among the most important research topics the relationships between gas exchange, carbon balance and plant productivity, effects of minerd nutrients, stress factors (including pathogens) and leaf development on pigment content, photosynthetic structures and activities, ecological studies in water reservoirs and forests peaking in modelling of canopy productivity, energy transfer in primary processes, composition and energetics of chlorophyll-protein complexes, structure and fimction of carboxylases, photosynthetic activities of regenerants and transgenic plants, and especially mechanisms of photoinhibition may be listed. An important contribution to progress in photosynthesis research were methodological studies, including also mass cultivation of algae, and intemational publication and bibliographic activities.