IN FOCUS: The History of IEEE GRSS at 65: 1961-64

By Joanne Van Voorhis

The IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) marks its 65th anniversary in 2026, celebrating more than six decades of scientific innovation, global collaboration, and volunteer-driven growth. Since its origin as the Group on Geoscience Electronics (G-GE) in 1961, the Society has evolved from a small technical circle in Texas into an international network connecting thousands of researchers, educators, and practitioners dedicated to observing, understanding, and supporting the Earth system. To commemorate this milestone, IEEE GRSS is presenting a 12-part series of historical articles tracing the Society’s development from its founding to the present day. “IN FOCUS: The History of IEEE GRSS at 65” will feature an article each month that highlights a distinct phase in GRSS’s evolution – from the pioneering radar and satellite work of the early 1960s to the data-driven, AI-enabled global community of today. The series will document how GRSS’s volunteer culture, scientific excellence, and international reach have shaped both the field of remote sensing and the broader IEEE community.

Part I – The Founding Years (1961-1964):
From Geoscience Electronics to a Scientific Society

Early Beginnings and Strategic Foresight

The early 1960s were a period of rapid technological and scientific expansion. Radar systems developed during World War II were being adapted for meteorology, oceanography, and planetary exploration. The dawn of the space age, signaled by the launch of Sputnik in 1957 and the creation of NASA the following year, stimulated new interest in observing the Earth from above. At the same time, U.S. industry was transforming geophysical prospecting, instrumentation, and communications through solid-state electronics.

In this atmosphere of convergence, a small but visionary group of engineers and scientists recognized the need for a professional home at the intersection of electronics and Earth science. On April 20, 1961, Lloyd V. Berkner, then the President of both the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and Robert W. Olson, a Vice President of Texas Instruments, convened a breakfast meeting of 20 people in Dallas, Texas. Most of the group worked in the American southwest’s growing petroleum industry, and were focused on seeking oil and natural gas in the area. Collectively they felt a need to establish a formal group where members could share ideas, approaches and results.

Their goal was straightforward yet ambitious: to create a forum for those applying radio-frequency, microwave, and electronic measurement techniques to study the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and subsurface. As a result, the Group on Geoscience Electronics (G-GE) formed in 1961 as the 29th technical group of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE). From the start, G-GE blended academic research with industrial practice – a characteristic that remains central to GRSS today.

Early Structure and Organization

The new group’s early activities focused on building scientific credibility within the broader IEEE community. A constitution and set of bylaws were adopted, establishing an Administrative Committee (AdCom) to guide publications and meetings. The first G-GE AdCom meeting was held on April 13, 1962 in Houston where Robert (Bob) Olson was elected as the first G-GE AdCom Chairman. Early officers and regional coordinators were drawn largely from the petroleum, radar, and instrumentation industries that clustered around the U.S. Southwest. At the meeting, a draft Constitution and Bylaws were discussed and procedures were adopted for mail ballot approval of the final documents. These documents were officially approved by the IRE Executive Committee on October 16, 1962.

In 1963, the newly formed IEEE – the product of the merger between the IRE and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) – formally recognized G-GE as one of its technical groups. This transition offered stability and visibility while encouraging the group to broaden its scope beyond applied geophysics.

Flagship Journal Launched

That same year, G-GE launched its flagship journal, “IEEE Transactions on Geoscience Electronics,” edited initially by Alan G. Trorey of the University of Toronto. The first issue was released in May 1963 and included a positioning article by Trorey as well as three other papers on radar altimetry, subsurface sensing, and electronic oceanography. A copy of the 1964 IEEE Transactions on Geoscience Electronics could be purchased for $2.25 and the annual member subscription price was $12.75. As would be expected, paper submissions were limited for the first few issues, with four papers in volume GE-1 No. 1 (one written by Alan Trorey, and only three papers in volume GE-2 No. 1 (November 1964). Trorey’s article was entitled, “From Geo-Wireless to Geoscience Electronics,” and stated that “both from the point of view of the electronic scientist and the ‘geo’ scientist, that geo, in modern day parlance, no longer means of the earth but means anywhere, since that which occurs anywhere may have an effect on earth.” This early publication soon established a strong scholarly foundation that continues through today’s IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (TGRS).

1961-1964 Technological Context

Remote sensing in the early 60s was dominated by ground-based and airborne radar and radiometric experiments, driven primarily by geophysical exploration, atmospheric studies, and defense-related research. Advances in microwave electronics and antenna technology enabled early quantitative investigations of surface roughness, dielectric properties, soil-moisture proxies, and subsurface structure, while parallel theoretical work established key elements of electromagnetic scattering and radiative-transfer theory. These efforts provided the analytical framework needed to interpret remotely sensed measurements. The launch of Nimbus-1 in 1964 represented a pivotal step toward spaceborne Earth observation, demonstrating that calibrated radiometric and imaging measurements could be acquired systematically from orbit. Together, the experimental, theoretical, and early satellite efforts of 1961–1964 laid the scientific and technical foundation for the rapid expansion of satellite remote sensing that followed.

Coining the Term “Remote Sensing”

While the origins of remote sensing can be traced to World War II’s use of radar, sonar, and thermal detection technologies, the use of the term ‘remote sensing’ wasn’t coined until the late 1950s. Evelyn Pruitt, a geographer with the U.S. Office of Naval Research, and Editor of “The Professional Geographer,” came up with the phrase to define the emerging imaging capabilities of multispectral cameras, infrared films, and nonphotographic scanners. The term was promoted in an early 1960s white paper prepared by the staff of the Geography branch at the Office of Naval Research. While the term “remote sensing” had yet to be widely adopted in the early years of G-GE, the conceptual framework, using electromagnetic observations to study Earth processes, was firmly established.

Early Community, Regional Growth, and Visions of Expansion

During its first few years, G-GE’s membership numbered only a few hundred, yet the group showed surprising geographic and technical diversity. Chapters quickly formed in Houston and Tulsa, extending participation from Dallas to other regional centers of oil exploration and instrumentation research. Many early members worked at Texas Instruments, the U.S. Geological Survey, and regional universities that were beginning to integrate radar and electronics into geophysical studies.

By 1964, G-GE had achieved formal IEEE Technical Group status and maintained an active publication and meeting schedule. The groundwork was laid for sustained growth through the late 1960s: a functioning AdCom, a respected technical journal, and a modest but stable base of members drawn from both academia and industry. While still concentrated in North America, the group’s vision was already expanding. Papers began arriving from Canada, Europe, and Japan, and the Transactions editorial board started to reflect that diversity.

Leadership and Volunteer Culture

G-GE’s early leaders understood that the group’s long-term viability depended on volunteer engagement. Berkner, known for his work in ionospheric research and for helping found UNESCO’s International Council of Scientific Unions, encouraged international participation even in the group’s infancy. Olson oversaw the practical tasks of membership recruitment, meeting organization, and the first publication committee. The contributions of other AdCom members and others would help establish the traditions of volunteer leadership, editorial rigor, and interdisciplinary openness that remain at the core of GRSS today.

Laying the Foundations of Collaboration

From the outset, collaboration with government research agencies was central to G-GE’s success. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were among the first institutions to interact with the new group. G-GE members contributed to the design and calibration of the TIROS weather satellites and to airborne radar experiments over the Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest. These partnerships not only provided technical content for Transactions but also positioned G-GE at the forefront of Earth observation research.

Legacy of the Founding Years

Looking back, the years 1961-1964 represent more than administrative beginnings. They mark the point at which a collection of independent researchers became a community unified by a shared scientific purpose. In creating the Group on Geoscience Electronics, Berkner and his colleagues effectively defined a new intellectual space within IEEE, one that bridged electrical engineering, physics, and Earth science.

That multidisciplinary vision remains the hallmark of the Society sixty five years later. Every modern GRSS activity – from radar polarimetry to hyperspectral imaging, from student chapters to global symposia – can trace its lineage to the small, volunteer-led organization that met for breakfast in Dallas in 1961.

Take a Closer Look:

Lloyd V. Berkner (ethw.org/Lloyd_V._Berkner)

History of GRSS Publications (www.grss-ieee.org/publications/history-of-grss-publications/) 

Next month we will explore “The History of IEEE GRSS at 65: Early Growth and Broadening Scope (1965–1969).”