Norway farewells IUGS

Susan Turner

The establishment of IUGS (www.IUGS.org) office in Norway came into effect when professor Richard Sinding-Larsen became IUGS Secretary-General, the virtual CEO, in 1984.

The IUGS was set up in 1961 as the last major scientific discipline to gain a voice in the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). Coming from a long-gestated idea begun in the post-World War I reorganisation of international science, the geologists were the last major body to create an overreaching organisation. Such unions provide the worldwide scientific community with standards and outreach and are involved with the setting up of international conferences such as the 33rd International Geological Congress hosted by Norway in Oslo in 2008.

The important work to finally launch the IUGS was done by Scandinavians at a similar IGC in Copenhagen in 1960. One of those men was Johannes Dons, first IUGS Executive Treasurer, who died on November 14th aged nearly 91 (GEO 08/2009). This sad news came just as the Secretariat, which has been based in Norway for 25 years is undertaking the massive job of transferring to its new country, with the base at the USGS, Reston VA [Washington DC]. Dons had led the Norwegian delegation and represented IUGS at the next International Geological Congress in Delhi in late 1964.

Sinding-Larsen had been encouraged to get involved in IUGS work by a fellow University of Trondheim man and early player in the Union's activities, Frederic Wolff, who had helped set up a linking body for geology and the environment (CoGeoEnvironment). A Canadian colleague, W.E. 'Bill' Hutchison asked Sinding-Larsen to take over as Chair of IUGS initiative, CoGeodata setting standards in the new fields of information technology, when Hutchison became Secretary-General. In turn, Sinding-Larsen was elected to the post at the International Geological Congress in Moscow in when 1984; he set up the Secretariat in Trondheim choosing friend and colleague, Hanne Refsdal as his 'anchorman'.

In 1989, Sinding-Larsen lost his position as Secretary General but he entrenched the monumental commitment of Norway and retained the Secretariat in Trondheim making NGU its home, which became "Permanent" in 1992 after a landmark agreement with the government. Before that the IUGS Secretariat always moved with the Office of its Secretary General.

Norwegians had fulfilled their role in IUGS; the Norwegian National Committee decided that the time had come for another country to take on the job of servicing the union. The move initiated entails thousands of documents, journals, photographs and even oral history tapes and a small collection of promotional products. This IUGS archive really needs a permanent home but the upcoming 50th anniversary is a good time to create a traveling exhibition to show what the union does.

Oppdatert: 10.05.2010 08:48
av Alf Kvassheim