History of the Founding of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology
The following meetings and events involving invertebrate pathology led up to the founding of SIP, taken from “Disease in a Minor Chord” (1975) by Edward A. Steinhaus..
1956 - The International Congress of Entomology in Montreal. Gordon Bucher chaired a session on Biological Control using Pathogens, at which Steinhaus met Jaroslav Weiser.>
1957 - The 9th Pacific Science Conference in Bangkok at Chulalonkorn University held a session on insect pathogens.
1958 - The First International Conference on Insect Pathology and Biological Control was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Weiser, head of the Laboratory of Insect Pathology at the Czechoslovakian Academy of Sciences, organized the meeting. At this meeting many scientists from Western and Eastern Europe and North America met for the first time. 1959- The Entomological Societies of America and Canada met in Detroit, and the entire meeting was dedicated to insect pathology and biological control. Weiser attended as a special guest speaker.
1959 - The Journal of Invertebrate Pathology begins publication, with Steinhaus as editor.
1962 - The World Health Organization Scientific Working Group on Biological Control of Vectors was formed, with Marshall Laird as head.
1963 - WHO hosted a symposium on Culture Procedures for Arthropod Vectors and Biological Control Agents in Gainesville, Florida.
1963 - Two Shellfish Mortality Conferences were held, in New York and Seattle, Washington.
1964 - The American Society for Microbiology held a symposium on microbial diseases of invertebrates, Washington, DC.
1964 - The 12th International Congress of Entomology in London hosted a section on insect pathology, hosted by Lucian Bailey and N.W. Hussey.
1966 - Mauro Martignoni established an insect pathology seminar series at the Entomological Society of America.
1966 - International Colloquium on Insect Pathology and Microbial Control, Wageningen, Netherlands.
1967 - Steinhaus published a proposal in the March issue of the Journal of Invertebrate Pathology that a Society should be formed.
1967 - Albert Sparks and Carl Sindermann sent out a questionnaire to 560 invertebrate pathologists that achieved a mandate to form a society. Most input came from North America, Japan, and Eastern Europe, as there was resistance form the Western European scientists due to the formation of the International Organization of Biological Control.
9 May, 1967 - The Organizing Committee met in Seattle, Washington. Members included Steinhaus, Thomas A. Angus, Arthur M. Heimpel, Mauro E. Martignoni, Carl J. Sindermann, Albert K. Sparks, and Vincent Sprague. Steinhaus was elected as the first President, Sparks as the first Vice-President (President-Elect), and Heimpel was elected the first Treasurer. Dues included: Founding Member ($5), charter and regular member ($4), student member ($2). Emeritus, Honorary and Sustaining Memberships were also established. Heimpel became the first Founding Member. A nominating committee, program committee, and American Institute of Biological Sciences representative were appointed. Later discussions with Constantin Vago led to increased participation by Western Europeans. Dr. Vago was elected Vice-President in the first ballot election.
20 December, 1967 - The first SIP Newsletter was published.
1968 - The Journal of Invertebrate Pathology stated it was “Published under the auspices of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology”
3-7 September, 1968 - The first SIP meeting was held at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, in conjunction with AIBS. John Briggs was the host.