American Geophysical Union

• 1. Founding And Early Growth

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  The American Geophysical Union took its first breath in December 1919. A committee led by Robert S. Woodward of the Carnegie Institution had defined geophysics as a collection of borderlands just months before. These fields included astronomy, geodesy, geology, meteorology, oceanography, seismology, and volcanology. The National Research Council established the union to represent the United States within the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. William Bowie from the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey became the first chairman. The organization operated for over fifty years as an unincorporated affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences. Its initial structure consisted of seven sections covering specific scientific domains. Hydrology joined the list in 1930 while Tectonophysics arrived in 1940. Norman Bowen suggested the name tectonophysics to describe this new borderline field between geophysics, physics, and geology. The first meeting occurred on the 23rd of April 1920 with only twenty-five members present. Membership remained restricted until 1930 when elections were required for entry. Annual dues of one dollar appeared in 1932. By 1950 the membership count reached 4,600 scientists. That number grew to 13,000 by 1980 and then doubled again to 26,000 by 1990. In December 1972 AGU incorporated in the District of Columbia. This legal change opened membership to scientists and students worldwide.

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• 2. Publications And Digital Transition

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  AGU publishes more than twenty peer-reviewed scientific journals alongside its online magazine Eos. The journal Radio Science is co-sponsored by the International Union of Radio Science. Another publication called Earth Interactions appears in partnership with the American Meteorological Society and the Association of American Geographers. Many journals carry high impact factors with Paleoceanography holding the highest within paleontology as of 2010. The organization has published books for over eighty-five years. A full transition to electronic publishing happened in 2001. This shift introduced a new identification scheme that eliminated sequential page numbers entirely. Each article received a digital object identifier instead. An example code like 10.1029/2001GL014304 contained the publisher identifier year journal code and an article number. Libraries and scientists complained about this system because article numbers offered no clue for finding printed versions. Scientific databases were not yet set up to handle DOIs effectively. AGU officials claimed these problems were temporary costs of being a frontrunner. They later retroactively assigned each article a four-digit article number to fix the issue. In 2012 the journals and books including over one and a half million pages of legacy content moved to the Wiley Online Library. John Wiley & Sons won the IT Project Team of the Year Award at the UK IT Industry Awards for 2013 for handling this massive transfer.

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• 3. Leadership And Governance Structure

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  More than forty presidents have provided scientific leadership for the AGU since 1919. William Bowie served two separate terms from 1920 to 1922 and again from 1929 to 1932. Louis Agricola Bauer led the union from 1922 to 1924 while Harry Fielding Reid took office in 1924. The operational side relied on a larger team of executive directors. John Adam Fleming was elected Secretary in 1925 and changed his title to General Secretary. He worked as a volunteer at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution. Waldo E. Smith became the first full-time professional administrator hired in 1943 when membership neared 2,000. Athelstan Spilhaus Jr. replaced Smith in 1970 and Christine McEntee took over that role in 2010. Medals now bear the names of both Fleming and Smith. The leadership structure in 2021 included a president alongside a CEO four executive vice presidents six vice presidents seven directors and a chief digital officer. The organization offers several awards including the Africa Award for Research Excellence established in 2015. This award recognizes early career scientists from Africa who make outstanding contributions to Earth or ocean sciences research.

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• 4. Annual Meetings And Global Impact

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  AGU holds an annual meeting every December known as the Fall Meeting. Until 2017 this event occurred yearly in San Francisco. Renovations forced the 2017 meeting into New Orleans while the 2018 gathering moved to Washington DC. The location then returned to San Francisco in 2019 with plans to rotate among four cities. A second Spring meeting existed until declining interest caused AGU to move it starting with Boston in 1998. The 2003 meeting in Nice France became known as the Joint Assembly due to co-sponsorship with other societies. The Fall Meeting drew more than 25,000 attendees in 2018. These large numbers create significant greenhouse gas emissions. Participants in the 2002 meeting traveled an average distance producing 1.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide per person. That amount equals one-sixteenth of the average yearly emissions for Americans. Ninety-five percent of these emissions come from jet fuel. An unpublished study by David Scott and Lawrence Plug of Dalhousie University estimated that moving the Fall Meeting to Denver Colorado could reduce emissions by 7.7%. In 2017 the first joint JpGU-AGU meeting took place in Chiba Japan between AGU and the Japan Geoscience Union.

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• 5. Policy Advocacy And Climate Stance

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  The AGU Council issues position statements on matters affecting public policy related to geophysics. These topics include biological evolution natural hazards science education funding and climate change. The union adopted its first position statement on climate change in December 1998. This statement concluded after discussing scientific uncertainties regarding global warming. The adopted position was backed up by a detailed supporting document. Revisions occurred several times with the most recent reaffirmation happening in 2012. Members working in politically controversial fields have faced legal attacks. Michael Mann a Fellow of the AGU and lead author of the original hockey stick graph study faced a legal demand from Kenneth Cuccinelli II. Cuccinelli was then the attorney general of Virginia who argued there was no persuasive evidence that human activity warms the planet. The court rejected Cuccinelli's demand for private emails. Such legal challenges continue so AGU entered a partnership with the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund in 2012. This agreement offers legal counseling at the Fall Meeting to protect scientists facing similar threats.

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• 6. Ethics Controversies And Reforms

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  AGU created a Task Force on Scientific Ethics in 2011 to review policies dealing with misconduct. The effort stalled when chairman Peter Gleick admitted he had lied to obtain internal documents from the Heartland Institute. Gleick leaked these documents to the public motivated by frustration with groups attacking climate science. He resigned from the task force on the 16th of February 2012 and Linda Gundersen replaced him. In 2017 AGU updated its ethics policy to include harassment bullying and discrimination as scientific misconduct. A 2016 workshop convened to address sexual and gender-based harassment led to this change. Staff members wear Safe AGU buttons to signify themselves as resources during incidents. CEO Chris McEntee testified before the House Committee on Science Space Technology on the 27th of February 2018 regarding sexual harassment in science. In July 2019 the union received a three-year grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for an Ethics and Equity Initiative. This collaboration tackles issues around sexual harassment through new educational resources. December 2022 saw AGU punish climate scientists Rose Abramoff and Peter Kalmus for interrupting a plenary session. They called for protest against climate change during the annual Fall Meeting. AGU removed their presentations banned them from participation and complained to Abramoff's employer Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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• 7. Corporate Sponsorship Debates

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  In 2014 the AGU accepted 5469 gifts grants and pledges from individuals and corporations. The 1919 Society included gifts over $100,000 from ExxonMobil Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International and Nature's Own. An annual Student Breakfast was supported by ExxonMobil while Amazon Web Services offered research grants. The AGU Board approved a new Organizational Support Policy in 2015 covering advertorials and member surveys. Evidence surfaced that ExxonMobil had known about climate change for decades but worked to undermine it. On the 22nd of February 2016 a letter signed by 100 scientists requested cutting all ties with ExxonMobil. The AGU Board of Directors met on the 22nd of April 2016 and voted to continue accepting sponsorship from the energy company. They argued there was not unequivocal evidence that ExxonMobil continued participating in climate misinformation. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Ted Lieu sent a critical letter stating ExxonMobil continues funding climate denial. The Union of Concern Scientists also urged reconsideration. However the Board upheld its decision again on the 23rd of September 2016. In November 2021 AGU announced it no longer held direct investments in fossil-fuel companies.

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