The International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication, or EIPBN, meets for the 50th time this year. This conference's origin dates back to March 20, 1959 in Boston, Massachusetts, and a very different conference name, the "Symposium on Electron Beam Melting" which hosted 16 scheduled papers. Its record of 93 pages was compiled by James S. Hetherington and published by the sponsor, Alloyd Research Corporation of Watertown, Massachusetts. In 1960 the name changed to the "Symposium on Electron Beam Processes" and was sponsored through 1965 by the same company, but now renamed Alloyd Electronics (later Alloyd General) located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Robert Bakish chaired the 1960-1962 meetings and edited their proceedings, and John Morley chaired and edited the 1963-1964 meetings.

The 1965 meeting was chaired by Auguste B. El-Kareh and held at Penn State University, again renamed the "Electron and Laser Beam Symposium." In 1966 the IEEE Electron Devices Society began sponsorship of the "Alloyd" meeting, a relationship that continues to the present day. The 1967 meeting was chaired by Charles Suskind and Fabian Pease, again renamed the "Symposium on Electron, Ion and Laser Beam Technology," marking the first time that all three beams are mentioned.

In 1973, the AVS became involved with the "IEEE" biannual meeting and agreed to publish the proceedings as an issue of the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. In 1975, the name of the meeting changed to the "Symposium on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology," marking the emerging interest in x-ray beams.

In 1964 AIME and the Electrochemical Society sponsored the start of a new conference in a similar field, the "International Conference on Electron and Ion Beam Science and Technology." Robert Bakish chaired and edited the proceedings of this biannual from 1964 to 1982. The AIME dropped its co-sponsorship after the 1966 conference, leaving the Electrochemical Society as sole sponsor. In 1967 it was arranged that these two meetings, the IEEE and the ECS sponsored venues, would alternate annually.

In 1983, there was a merger of these alternate year meetings into a single annual event. It was named "The International Symposium on Electron, Ion and Photon Beams" a.k.a. "The Three Beam Symposium." In 1985, the conference was incorporated and became an independent entity with proceedings published by the AVS. In 1991 OSA co-sponsorship was started and in 1995 the meeting was renamed "The International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Technology and Nanofabrication," to more accurately reflect its stand-alone status since it was no longer a symposium within the larger conferences, and to acknowledge the growing importance of nanofabrication.

Today, it is a non-profit corporation which is run by a Steering Committee with an Advisory Committee comprising past members of the Steering Committee and representatives from sister conferences in Europe and Japan.

Ed Karek, EIPBN historian, Feb. 3, 2004