For a number of years, the keynote lecture of the SETI I sessions at the annual IAA Symposium on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence has honored Prof. Rudolph Pesek, the Czech scientist credited with coining the acronym CETI.

In the literature on the problem of Extraterrestrial Civilizations, besides the term SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), the term CETI (Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has also long been used. Historically, the term CETI appeared earlier. It was proposed by Professor Rudolph Pesek, Chairman of the Astronautics Commission of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.

Pesek was the first Chairman of the CETI Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). The term CETI persisted until about the mid-1970s, when it was gradually replaced by the current acronym, SETI. The reason for this substitution was probably a belief that, before talking about establishing communications with extraterrestrial civilizations, these must first be detected. Consequently, the search must precede the communication. Eventually, the CETI Committee of the IAA was renamed the IAA SETI Committee. It now exists as the SETI Permanent Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics.

• See also: Annual Billingham Cutting-Edge Lecture