The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international fields within the Earth and space sciences. The geophysical sciences involve four fundamental areas: atmospheric and ocean sciences; solid-Earth sciences; hydrologic sciences; and space sciences. The organization's headquarters is located on Florida Avenue in Washington, D.C.
History The AGU was established in December 1919 by the National Research Council (NRC) to represent the United States in the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), and its first chairman was William Bowie of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (USCGS). For more than 50 years, it operated as an unincorporated affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences. On June 29, 1972, AGU was incorporated in the District of Columbia"American Geophysical Union". District of Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. Government of the District of Columbia. Accessed on April 13, 2016. and membership was opened to scientists and students worldwide.
The AGU was intended to promote "pure" geophysics; exploration geophysics has its own society, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists. In a March 1919 report by a committee chaired by Robert S. Woodward of the Carnegie Institution, geophysics was defined as a collection of "borderlands" (closely related, mutually dependent subjects): astronomy, geodesy, geology, meteorology, oceanography, seismology, terrestrial magnetism, terrestrial electricity, tides, and volcanology. The AGU was organized under seven sections: Geodesy, Seismology, Meteorology, Terrestrial magnetism and electricity, Oceanography, Volcanology, and Geophysical chemistry. Hydrology was added in 1930 and Tectonophysics in 1940. In suggesting the latter name, Norman Bowen evoked a familiar theme: to "designate this new borderline field between geophysics, physics and geology for the solution of problems of tectonics."
The first meeting of the AGU took place on April 23, 1920. In attendance were 25 members. Up to 1930, the number of members was restricted and members were elected. In 1932 the first annual dues of were imposed. The membership grew to 4,600 in 1950; 13,000 in 1980; and 26,000 in 1990. As of 2018, it had 62,000 members from 137 countries.
Publications
AGU publishes the online magazine Eos and more than twenty peer-reviewed scientific journals:
AGU Advances Earth and Space Science Earth's Future Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems GeoHealth Geophysical Research Letters Global Biogeochemical Cycles Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Journal of Geophysical Research – sections A (Space Physics), B (Solid Earth), C (Oceans), D (Atmospheres), E (Planets), F (Earth Surface), and G (Biogeosciences) Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Radio Science Reviews of Geophysics Space Weather Tectonics Water Resources Research The journal Radio Science is co-sponsored by the International Union of Radio Science. The journal Earth Interactions is published in partnership with the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the Association of American Geographers (AAG). In addition, International Journal of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy is no longer published and AGU distributes Chinese Journal of Geophysics and Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics. Many of the journals have high impact factors, with Paleoceanography having the highest within paleontology and Reviews of Geophysics the second highest within geochemistry and geophysics as of 2010. AGU has also been publishing books for more than 85 years.
AGU has also partnered with societies to publish:
Chinese Journal of Geophysics, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Earth and Planetary Physics, with the Chinese Geophysical Society Earth Interactions, with the American Meteorological Society Nonlinear Processes in Geophysics, with the European Geosciences Union Interpretation, with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists The Leading Edge, with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists
AGU co-published (along with the AMS and the AAG) its first electronic journal, Earth Interactions, in 1997. It started its own electronic journal, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, in December 1999. It made a full transition to electronic publishing in 2001. For all its journals, the electronic version became the publication of record. This was accompanied by a new identification scheme for articles that entirely did away with sequential page numbers. Instead, each article had a digital object identifier (DOI). As an example, 10.1029/2001GL014304 consists of the publisher identifier (10.1029), the year (2001), the journal code (GL), and an article number (014304). This new system was met with complaints from libraries and scientists. The article numbers provided no clue for libraries to find an article in printed versions, and even scientific databases were not set up to handle DOIs. AGU officials claimed that the problems were a temporary cost of being a frontrunner, but did retroactively assign each article a four-digit article number.
In 2012 the journals and books, including over one and a half million pages of legacy content, were transferred to the Wiley Online Library. John Wiley & Sons were recognized for this work with the IT Project Team of the Year Award at the UK IT Industry Awards for 2013.
Five AGU journals are open access only: AGU Advances, Earth's Future, Earth and Space Science, GeoHealth, JAMES, and Space Weather. The remainder are delayed open access journals, having free access after a two-year rolling period.
The AGU hosts a number of blogs, collectively known as the AGU Blogosphere, informally publishing frequent updates on the Earth and space sciences.AGU Blogosphere
Texaco copyright case
AGU publications are copyrighted, but in the United States many exceptions to the exclusive rights of copyright are allowed under the fair use provision, part of the Copyright Act of 1976. Making copies of publications are allowed for such uses as teaching and research as long as a set of four criteria are met. However, when Texaco's corporate library made systematic copies of journal articles for its collection, AGU and five other publishers took Texaco to court. The judges found for AGU. Texaco was fined and agreed to retroactively purchase a license from the Copyright Clearance Center.
Executive
Presidents
The presidents of the AGU have been:
William Bowie (1920–1922) Louis Agricola Bauer (1922–1924) Harry Fielding Reid (1924–1926) Henry S. Washington (1926–1928) William Bowie (1929–1932) William Jackson Humphreys (1932–1935) Nicholas H. Heck (1935–1938) Richard M. Field (1938–1941) Walter C. Lowdermilk (1941–1944) Leason H. Adams (1944–1947) Oscar Edward Meinzer (1947–1948) Walter Hermann Bucher (1948–1953) James B. Macelwane (1953–1956) Maurice Ewing (1956–1959) Lloyd V. Berkner (1959–1961) Thomas F. Malone (1961–1964) George P. Woollard (1964–1966) William C. Ackermann (1966–1968) Helmut Landsberg (1968–1970) Homer E. Newell, Jr. (1970–1972) Philip H. Abelson (1972–1974) Frank Press (1974–1976) Arthur E. Maxwell (1976–1978) Allan V. Cox (1978–1980) John T. Wilson (1980–1982) James Van Allen (1982–1984) Charles L. Drake (1984–1986) Peter S. Eagleson (1986–1988) Don L. Anderson (1988–1990) Brent Dalrymple (1990–1992) Ralph J. Cicerone (1992–1994) Marcia Neugebauer (1994–1996) Sean Solomon (1996–1998) John A. Knauss (1998–2000) Marcia McNutt (2000–2002) Robert E. Dickinson (2002–2004) John Orcutt (2004–2006) Tim Killeen (2006–2008) Tim Grove (2008–2010) Michael McPhaden (2010–2013) Carol Finn (2013–2014) Margaret Leinen (2015–2017) Eric A. Davidson (2017–2019) Robin Bell (2019–2021) Susan Lozier (2021–2023) Lisa Graumlich (2023–2025) Michael Brandon Jones (2025–)
Executive directors While more than 40 presidents have provided scientific leadership for the AGU since 1919, operational leadership has been provided by a larger team. The first senior team member was John Adam Fleming, who was elected Secretary in 1925 and changed the name of his position to General Secretary. He served as a volunteer while working at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution. By 1943, with the membership nearing 2,000, AGU recognized the need for a full-time professional administrator. The post was renamed Executive Secretary and Waldo E. Smith was hired. He served until 1970 and then Athelstan Spilhaus, Jr. was hired as executive director. Christine McEntee replaced him in 2010. Medals have been named after Fleming and Smith. The AGU leadership in 2021 included, in addition to the president, a CEO, 4 executive vice presidents, 6 vice presidents, 7 directors, and a chief digital officer.
Recognition The AGU offers several awards, medals and fellowships.
Awards The Africa Award for Research Excellence in Earth or Ocean Sciences (established 2015), awarded annually to an early career scientist from the continent of Africa, "for completing significant work that shows the focus and promise of making outstanding contributions to research in Earth or ocean sciences." The Africa Award for Research Excellence in Space Science (established 2015), awarded annually to an early career scientist from the continent of Africa, "for completing significant work that shows the focus and promise of making outstanding contributions to research in space science." The Ambassador Award (established 2013), awarded annually to up to five honorees in recognition "for outstanding contributions to one or more of the following area(s): societal impact, service to the Earth and space community, scientific leadership, and promotion of talent/career pool." This is the only AGU award whose recipients are conferred AGU Fellows. The Athelstan Spilhaus Award (established 2006), named after Athelstan Frederick Spilhaus, Sr. who created the bathythermograph and also a long-running science cartoon, "for enhancement of the public understanding of Earth and space science." The Charles S. Falkenberg Award (established in 2002), named after Falkenberg, who applied data visualization and information technology to earth sciences, to an individual "scientist under 45 years of age who has contributed to the quality of life, economic opportunities, and stewardship of the planet through the use of Earth science information and to the public awareness of the importance of understanding our planet." The Pavel S. Molchanov Climate Communications Prize (established in 2011 and permanently endowed by Pavel S. Molchanov in 2023) is awarded "in recognition of the communication of climate science to promote scientific literacy, clarity of message, and efforts to foster respect and understanding of science-based values, particularly around climate change." The David Perlman Award (established 2000), named after the science editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, "for excellence in researching and reporting a news story that meets one or more of the following criteria: brings new information or concepts about AGU sciences to the public's attention, identifies and corrects misconceptions about AGU sciences, or makes AGU sciences accessible and interesting to general audiences, without sacrificing accuracy." The Edward A. Flinn III Award (established 1990), named after a leader of the NASA Geodynamics Program who directed efforts to detect motion of the Earth's crust using laser ranging, to an "individual who personifies the Union's motto 'unselfish cooperation in research' through their facilitating, coordinating, and implementing activities."