The motivation for founding a society specifically for virologists dates to the mid-1960s and originated in the community's dissatisfaction with its representation in existing microbiology societies, most notably the International Association of Microbiological Societies and the American Society for Microbiology. The society was formally founded following a meeting organized by Bernard Roizman of 40 prominent virology researchers at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on June 9, 1981. Its first official annual meeting, organized by Milt Zaitlin, took place at Cornell University in August 1982, by which time its membership had reached almost 1,000 scientists.[1][2]