HISTORY OF ORGANIC GEOCHEMISTRY

Organic Geochemistry was formally organized and recognized as a geoscience some 40 years ago. Built, in part, upon the nascent field of petroleum geochemistry, its first organized meeting was held in June of 1959 during the 5th World Petroleum Congress in New York City. That meeting "General Petroleum Geochemistry Symposium," was organized by B. Nagy, E.G. Baker, and P. Witherspoon and was convened at Fordham University. A Gordon Research Conference followed in 1963 entitled "Origin of Petroleum," co-chaired by H. Smith and F. Rossini at Tilton School, New Hampshire. Meanwhile, the Organic Geochemistry Division (OGD) was formed in November 1960 on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Denver, Colorado. By early 1961, OGD was recognized as an integral part of The Geochemical Society. In September 1962, the 1st International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry was held in Milan, Italy, with U. Colombo as Chairman. There have now been 20 International Meetings, the last in Nancy, France, September 2001, with P. Landais as Chairman. Gordon Research Conferences devoted specifically to organic geochemistry began in 1968 (B. Nagy was the first Chairman) and have been held every other year since at Holderness School, New Hampshire; in 2000 the Chairman was J.I. Hedges. A journal, Organic Geochemistry, was established in 1977 by I.A. Breger. In 1988, this publication was designated the official Journal of European Association of Organic Geochemists, and it continues to be published, now under the editorship of J.A. Curiale and A.G. Douglas. The Alfred E. Treibs Award for "outstanding contributions in Organic Geochemistry" was first awarded to G.T. Philippi in 1979, and, as of the year 2001, the award has been presented sixteen times, the last time to J.W. Smith. Organic geochemistry has had a short but rich history, and the future looks bright with the increasing recognition of the importance of biogeochemical processes in geoscience.