For more detailed information about the history of the Gordon Research Conferences organization, please visit our 75th Anniversary web site at www.frontiersofscience.org!

The first meeting of what was to become the Gordon Research Conferences took place at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, in the summer of 1931. The meeting was convened by Professor Neil E. Gordon, a member of the chemistry faculty. Dr. Gordon's interest was to bring together a group of scientists working at the frontier of research of a particular area and permit them to discuss in depth all aspects of the most recent advances in the field and to stimulate new directions for research. The meetings continue today in that same manner.

From 1931 to 1947 the Conferences met in the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland. For several years the meetings were structured as a summer school at Johns Hopkins and met in Remsen Hall, the chemistry department building. In search of a more isolated meeting site the Conferences moved to Gibson Island in the mid-1930's. At about the same time the Conferences affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science and were organized as the AAAS-Gibson Island Chemical Research Conferences. This mode of operation continued until 1946, when Neil Gordon retired.

In 1947 the Conferences moved to Colby Junior College (now Colby-Sawyer College), New London, New Hampshire, and were named the Gordon Research Conferences in honor of the years of work Neil Gordon had done in establishing meetings. In the summer of 1947 there were 10 Gordon Research Conferences. In 1956 the Gordon Research Conferences incorporated in New Hampshire as a non-profit, tax exempt organization devoted to scientific and educational purposes. The GRC business in New England has grown steadily over the years. We currently use school sites in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island and host as many as 14 meetings a week during the summer months.

In 1963 the Polymers Conference moved to Santa Barbara, California, founding the west coast winter series. In 1980 winter operations moved to Ventura, California. We now hold 25-35 meetings each year, January to March, in that part of California.

In 1990, responding to the international growth of fundamental research and technology, the Gordon Research Conferences began to hold meetings outside of the U.S. The first meetings were in Volterra, in northern Italy. The international Conferences have grown steadily and GRC currently meets May to October in Tuscany, Oxford and several other sites in Europe. GRC has also held meetings in Japan and Hong Kong. It is anticipated that the number of international meetings will continue to grow.

Neil Elbridge Gordon was born October 7, 1886 in the rural community of Spafford, New York. His early education was in a one-room school house and he completed his high school education in Watertown, New York. He earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Syracuse University and his Ph.D. degree in chemistry at Johns Hopkins University in 1917. After completing his graduate studies he taught at Goucher College and the University of Maryland, returning to the Hopkins faculty in 1928. In 1936 he moved from Johns Hopkins to Central College, Missouri and in 1942 to Wayne University, Detroit, Michigan. He founded the Journal of Chemical Education and assembled the Kresge-Hooker Library. He died in 1949.