25th International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry IMOG 2011

P-109
A saga on organic geochemistry—50 Years of IMOG
Keith Kvenvolden
Emeritus, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, United States of America (corresponding
author:kkvenvolden@usgs.gov)
In the march of history through time, events are often
noted on decadal or semi-decadal intervals; the
history of organic geochemistry is no exception. For
example, in 2010 the Organic Geochemistry Division
(OGD) of The Geochemical Society (GS)
acknowledged its 50 th year by posting a summary of
the event in Elements (v. 6, p. 338), the journal of GS.
In this same year, the Gordon Research Conferences
(GRC) celebrated 40 years of conferences devoted
specifically to organic geochemistry by inviting
conferees from the first of these meeting in 1970 to
participate in the 2010 conference. Twelve conferees
from the 1970 meeting were able to attend. All twenty
Gordon Research Conferences on organic
geochemistry have taken place at Holderness School
in New Hampshire (USA) every other year since
1970; this series was preceded by related
conferences in 1963 and 1968.
Now, the year 2011 marks the 50 th anniversary of
the <strong>International</strong> <strong>Meeting</strong>s on Organic Geochemistry
(IMOG) with the advent of the 25 th IMOG in
Switzerland. Beginning in 1962, IMOG has convened
every other year except for a three-year hiatus
between 1968 and 1971; this adjustment was made
so that IMOG and the GRC on organic geochemistry
would occur in alternate years. IMOG has convened
in eleven different countries: four times in France and
the UK; three times each in The Netherlands,
Germany, and Spain; twice each in Italy and Norway;
and once each in the USSR, Turkey, Poland, and
Switzerland. The flags of the IMOG host nations from
1962 to 2011 make a colourful statement that attests
to the vibrancy of the organization. The proceedings
of IMOG, consisting of compilations of papers
assembled as ―Advances in Organic Geochemistry‖
have presented an up-to-date view of the scientific
content of each IMOG. The year 2011 also marks the
28 th anniversary of the European Association of
Organic Geochemists (EAOG), which is now
responsible for the organization of each IMOG, and
the official journal of EAOG is Organic Geochemistry,
now in its 33 rd year of publication.
These temporal events acknowledge activities that
formally document the saga of organic geochemistry,
which began at least 80 years ago and is now a wellrecognized
global, interdisciplinary geoscience.
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