Top: Group Photo of Founders
and Chairs at ICUS XIV,
Houston, USA, 1985

In 1972, the Reverend Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Reverend Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon convened the First International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS I) in New York City, with 20 participants from eight countries and diverse disciplines.

From the first conference, chaired by Edward Haskell under the theme “Moral Orientation of the Sciences” the ICUS founders sought to guide science toward a broader and integrated approach in the search for scientific principles, that encourages connections between disciplines, centering on absolute values—that is values that would benefit all of humanity. Though the number of participants was relatively small, the conference produced serious and substantive scholarly output.

On the foundation of this first meeting, great interest in ICUS caused notable growth, in both participant numbers and influence. By the time of ICUS II, held a year later in Tokyo, Japan, some of the world’s greatest scientists and scholars were in attendance and the number of participants had nearly tripled.

Continuing as an annual conference, ICUS grew in participant numbers and excellence in scholarship, attracting increasing global interest and expanding the range of scientific disciplines represented, from the natural sciences to the social sciences and even the humanities.

The meetings were held in thirteen major cities of the world, including London, Boston, San Francisco, and Seoul, and themes and topics began to carry over in successive conferences. In this way, areas of importance could be studied more extensively and at greater depth. More than 2,000 scientists, including over 30 Nobel laureates, maintained enduring work around broad themes such as integrative concepts in the natural sciences and the value dimensions of scientific research, while exploring such diverse topics as the ethics of gene manipulation; the ocean in human affairs, and organization and change in complex systems.

This first era of ICUS, until the year 2000, produced enduring literature in the sciences, including published proceedings, 16 topical books and hundreds of refereed papers and articles of new research. Despite the diversity of topics covered, the common theme that spanned these conferences was pursuit of the basis for unified science, steered by absolute values. In addition, ICUS participants grew to discover themselves as family.

By 2000, the ICUS founders happily noted that the concept and goals of ICUS had gained a foothold in academia. Interdisciplinary, collaborative work had become more commonplace, based on the recognition that artificial boundaries need to be transcended in order to pursue the absolute values of seeking the truth and serving the public good. With that, between the years 2000 and 2016, the ICUS founders turned their attention to other pressing matters, particularly, international conflicts arising from religious, racial, and cultural differences that led to much suffering. Unfortunately, those years saw a steep rise in threats to our human future from pollution and destruction of the environment.

In response to these environmental challenges, ICUS co-founder Rev. Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon reconvened the ICUS series, orienting its mission toward protecting nature and helping regenerate a wholesome planet. Launching the new series, ICUS XXIII was held in Seoul in 2017, with the theme, “Earth’s Environmental Crisis and the Role of Science.” Likewise, in 2018, ICUS XXIV was held with the theme, “Scientific Solutions to the Earth’s Environmental Challenges,” and in 2019, ICUS XXV with the theme, “Environmental Health and the Quality of Human life.” In this manner, ICUS is calling on the great scientists of our time to find effective ways to care for and repair our planet, leading the way toward a beautiful healthy environment for future generations.

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