About · History
History
History of the International Association of Bryologists: the first twenty-five years
by Robbert Gradstein · Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris
57
Years covered
32
Congresses
11
Presidencies
Origins
An idea, a committee, a society
In 1966, at the Pacific Science Congress in Tokyo, some fifteen bryologists met informally. They agreed that the field had grown large and dispersed enough to need an international association of its own. An organising committee was formed, chaired by William C. Steere (USA), with Stanley W. Greene (UK) and Zennoske Iwatsuki (Japan) as vice-chairmen.
After three years of preparatory work, the proposal to establish the International Association of Bryologists was carried unanimously at the 11th International Botanical Congress in Seattle, in August 1969. The new society was placed under the wing of the IAPT, using the journal TAXON for its newsletter, the Bulletin of Bryology, with Rob Gradstein as its first secretary.
The first executive committee brought together William C. Steere as president, Stanley Greene and Zennoske Iwatsuki as vice-presidents, and Rob Gradstein as secretary. In 1975, at the congress in St. Petersburg, Lewis E. Anderson took over as president. Membership grew steadily, from an initial hundred to some six hundred by the mid-1980s.
With the move of the IAB office to Edmonton in 1987, under the new secretary-treasurer Dale H. Vitt, the association became independent in all but name: a separate budget and an endowment fund were established. The combined IAPT/IAB membership was finally abandoned at the Beijing meeting in 1997, and the society’s independent status was written into its constitution.
“It was felt that the society should stand on its own feet.”
Meetings
Congresses and symposia
During its first twenty-five years the IAB organised thirteen international congresses and symposia, usually at two-year intervals. They alternated between broad general meetings and gatherings on special themes, and each was accompanied by a field trip. The largest was the World Conference of Bryology in Tokyo, 1983, attended by more than 150 bryologists.
- 1973 — Boulder, USA
- 1975 — St. Petersburg
- 1979 — Geneva
- 1980 — Vancouver
- 1981 — Sydney
- 1983 — Tokyo
- 1985 — Vácrátót, Hungary
- 1987 — Berlin / Mainz
- 1989 — St. Louis
- 1989 — Mont Rigi, Belgium
- 1991 — Exeter, UK
- 1993 — Yokohama
- 1995 — Mexico City
Committees
Projects and publications
Awards
Governance
IAB Councils
The presidents who have led the association through its first decades:
| 1969–1975 | William Campbell Steere |
| 1975–1981 | Lewis Edward Anderson |
| 1981–1987 | Hiroshi Inoue |
| 1987–1993 | Stanley W. Greene |
| 1993–1999 | Timo Juhani Koponen |
| 1999–2005 | Stephan Robbert Gradstein |
| 2005–2009 | Janice Glime |
| 2009–2013 | Jeffrey G. Duckett |
| 2013–2015 | Dietmar Quandt |
| 2015–2023 | Bernard Goffinet |
by Robbert Gradstein. With thanks to Janice Glime and Françoise Bouazzat.