The 50th Anniversary of the First International Conference on Permafrost

The First International Conference on Permafrost was held at Purdue University, School of Civil Engineering, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, on 11–15 November 1963. Some 285 registered engineers, researchers, manufacturers and builders participated representing Argentina, Austria, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA and the USSR. This was the first post-World War II major contact with a group of senior Soviet frozen ground researchers. The Proceedings is considered to be the first multi-national, English-language collection of papers devoted entirely to permafrost topics. Since 1963, nine additional international conferences have been held: two more in the United States (Fairbanks 1983, 2008), two in the Soviet Union and Russia (Yakutsk 1973, Salekhard 2012), two in Canada (Edmonton 1978, Yellow-knife 1998), and one in Trondheim, Norway (1988), Beijing, China (1993), and Zurich, Switzerland (2003). The International Permafrost Association (IPA) was formed in 1983 and subsequent conferences were under the IPA auspices. A brief review of these 10 conferences is presented. Discussions between IAEG and IPA took place by correspondence and at a meeting in Vail, Colorado, in June 2007 where it was decided to initiate a commission on engineering geology in permafrost regions.