History of ISEB
The initial concept for this organization was developed in 1970 by D.A. McLaren and J. Skujins; specifically, a meeting with no overlapping sessions devoted to environmental biogeochemistry where participants would be exposed to discussions not only in their own field of expertise, but also to discussions in other cognate disciplines.
Skujins subsequently organized an informal meeting in 1971 with P. Givens, T. Brock and H. Ehrlich that gave shape and form to the idea of a international symposium on biogeochemistry. In 1973, the first symposium was held at Utah State University in Logan, USA. Since then the symposium had become a regular biennial event with formalization of the organization through incorporation as a not-for-profit company under the name of Symposia on Environmental Biogeochemistry, Inc. (SEB). At the 19th biennial symposium in 2009 at Hamburg, Germany, the International Committee of SEB established the International Society for Environmental Biogeochemistry.