HAPPY 25th ANNIVERSARY, IRIS!

Twenty-five years ago, on May 8, 1984, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) was formally certified as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation in the State of Delaware, organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes.

The purposes for IRIS, stated in its Certificate of Incorporation, transcend the intervening years:

• "(i) to promote and conduct the geophysical investigation of the earth's interior using seismic and other geophysical methods;
• (ii) to promote the exchange of information and knowledge and to create, foster, and encourage cooperative efforts between the members of the Corporation and other organizations, research workers, students, and other institutions involved in the area of the study of earth sciences;
• (iii) to solicit, raise, and receive funds for the advancement and furtherance of the foregoing purposes..."

This action of the broad seismological community was represented by seismologists at 18 Universities and Institutions across the United States, who served as the first Directors of the Corporation:

The first meeting of the IRIS Board of Directors took place later in May at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the first Executive Committee of the Board was elected:

Later in 1984, the visionary $281M (10-year) IRIS "Rainbow Proposal" was submitted, initiating IRIS as a major facility for the National Science Foundation. For more on the history of IRIS, download the paper "IRIS - A University Consortium for Seismology" by Stewart W. Smith and published in July 1987 in Reviews of Geophysics.