The recipient of the 2010 Dr. Elemer Hantos prize was Rudolf Chmel. He was awarded his prize Bratislava by Stefan Messman, chairman of the award committee, and Randy Charles Epping, President of the Central Europe Foundation.
Rudolf Chmel served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Human Rights and National Minorities where he contributed greatly to protecting the rights of minorities in border regions of Central Europe.
He served as Minister of Culture in the government of Slovakia from 2002 to 2005 and again in 2006. He was also the last ambassador of Czechoslovakia accredited to Hungary, a member of the Parliament of Slovakia, and a writer and editor. 2010-2012 he was a Deputy Prime Minister in Iveta Radicová's government.
He was born in Plzen in 1939 and graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava with the following degrees: PhDr. (1968), DrSc. (1992), Doc. (1992)
Employment History:
from 1961 researcher of the Literary Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
1982-1989 secretary of the Association of Czechoslovak Writers
1988-1989 Editor in chief of the literary journal Slovenské pohlady
1989-1990 director of the Institute of Literary Science of the Slovak Academy of Sciences
1990-1992 Czech and Slovak Federal Republic´s ambassador to Hungary
1993-1997 Head of the department of the Hungarian Language and Literature at Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava
1993-1998 Spokesperson of the Forum of Slovak Intellectuals, Editor in chief of Stredoeurópske noviny, supplement of daily newspapers SME, Gazeta Wyborcza, Lidové noviny, Magyar írlap, resp. Népszava
1993-2000 President of the Open Society Foundation
1994-2002 director of Institute of Slavic and East European Studies, Charles University of Prague
from 1997 Head of Editor´s Council of OS journal (from 2007 editor in chief)
2002-2005 Minister of Culture
2005-2006 Minister of Culture
2005-2006 Member of the Slovak Parliament
from 2006 director of Institute of Slavic and East European Studies, Charles University of Prague
from 2009 deputy chairman of Most-Híd party
from 2010 Deputy Prime Minister for Human Rights and National Minorities
Publications:
Literatúry v kontaktoch /1972/
Kritika a kontinuita /1975/
Dejiny v dejinách /1981/
Sondy /1983/
Paralely a konfrontácie /1986/
Dejiny slovenskej literárnej kritiky /1991/
Moja madarská otázka /1996/
Moje slovenské pochybnosti /2004/
Romantizmus v globalizme /2009/
Slovenský komplex /2010/
Laureate of Hungarian state award "Minority prize" (1996), Ludovít Štúr "Golden Medal" award of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (1999), prize of the foreign ministers of Slovakia and Hungary for "Understanding and good neighbourliness" (2009).