AGU History
1896
Terrestrial Magnetism, forerunner to the Journal of Geophysical Research, begins publishing
1897
1899
1919
Established by the National Research Council as the result of a union between the American National Committee of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics and the Committee on Geophysics of the National Research Council
1920
1925
The first operational leader was John Adam Fleming, who was elected Secretary and changed the name of his position to General Secretary.
1943
With membership nearing 2,000, AGU recognized the need for a full-time professional administrator. Waldo E. Smith, Executive Secretary, was hired and served until 1970.
1948
Independently incorporated AGU
1948
Title of AGU’s journal becomes Journal of Geophysical Research
1956
First Book in Geophysical Monograph Series
Antarctica in the International Geophysical Year: Based on a Symposium on the Antarctic
1968
1969
Launched Eos as a monthly print magazine
1975
1978
1970
Hired Athelstan (Fred) Spilhaus, Jr. as Executive Director. He served until 2009.
1999
Posted first online-only AGU journal: G3 | Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
2002
2002
Digital Library Ad
2010
Hired Chris McEntee, AGU’s third Executive Director and CEO.
2010
Earth Magazine
2013
Started Wiley publication partnership
2013
2014
Started Eos.org publishing
March 2017
- Established Ethics and Equity Center
- Defined harassment as scientific misconduct and updated AGU’s Ethics policy
- Co-founded Societies Consortium for Addressing Harassment in STEM and advised on leading practices
December 2017
Held AGU Fall Meeting in New Orleans, LA; the first time Fall Meeting was held outside of San Francisco
2019
Celebrated AGU’s Centennial
2019
2020
Announced Randy Fiser as AGU's fourth CEO and Executive Director
January 2020
Launched AGU Advances, a cross-disciplinary, open-access journal publishing full-length, high-impact research articles and commentary across all Earth, space and planetary sciences
