History

A brief history of the origin of the International Diffuse Reflectance Conference (IDRC) and the organizers is given below.  We have an ongoing history project that provides access to many of the conference documents.  This history is searchable and will be updated periodically. Please click the links on the right side of this page to more fully explore IDRC's history.

The IDRC had its beginnings in 1982 as organized by Dr. Gerry Birth of the USDA Agricultural Research Service. Gerry's original idea was to hold the conference as a Gordon Conference, but the Gordon Conference people didn't consider the content to be of sufficient scientific merit. So Gerry organized it on the same theme as a Gordon Conference, with morning and evening sessions and free afternoons. The afternoons originally were the time when informal meetings were held, often by people who had gotten into a good discussion over lunch. Other people went for walks, or simply did nothing! Group and individual sporting activities included running, volleyball, golf, swimming, cycling, and tennis. (This structure continues today, with occasional afternoon optional workshops.)

There were only 64 people at the first IDRC, which was euphoric in its impact. Tomas Hirschfeld, Peter Griffiths, Wilbur Kaye, Karl Norris and of course Gerry Birth were among the participants present at that first conference. The lively discussions between Peter and Tomas and D. Bruce Chase were among the highlights of that meeting. During a meeting on the Thursday morning session of the first IDRC in 1982 the question of whether there should be a follow-up conference arose. Of course everybody voted in favor. Then the question of who would organize it came up. Nobody else would take it on, so Dr. Phil Williams (Canadian Grain Commission, Winnipeg, Manitoba) volunteered.

About a month after returning to Canada, Phil canvassed all of the participants by mail to see which topics they wanted retained, or dropped, and if there were any new topics. Surprisingly the consensus was to drop the Medical Applications slot. The second IDRC conference had 96 participants, and an instrument manufacturer, Technicon, asked if they could hold a hospitality suite at the Holiday Inn, on the Sunday evening, the first of any kind of informal reception at IDRC. These get-togethers continue today, with on-campus mixers occuring after the evening lectures.

With the first and second conferences, the tradition was established to hold this conference every two years in August, at the same location, Wilson College.

Those who have participated in all 12 conferences are: Woody Barton, Tony Davies, Howard Mark, Fred McClure, Karl Norris, and Phil Williams Jim Reeves, Dave Wetzel, and Lois Weyer have been to most, if not all of them.

According to Phil Williams (who also organized the 1994 IDRC), the IDRCs are fairly easy to organize. They are popular because everybody cooperates very well, and the host college (Wilson College) is very accomodating.