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RESEARCH & INNOVATION
t
o understand the future one must study the past. These
words, to a large extent, explain the continuation of the involvement of IIW in
research and development and the effect that welding has had on the progress of the human
race, either directly or indirectly, through IIW and the work of its Commissions. Mr Paul
Goldschmidt-Clermont (Belgium), the inaugural President of IIW 1948-51, was to stress
the importance of the work of the early Commissions by commenting, ‘Because it brought
together experts in all these subjects IIW had access to a field of observation and studies
which were to become, as it were, universal, and it could put the experimental into practice
wherever the work units terms of reference was being done’.
1
Dr Howard Biers, the first IIW President from the USA 1954-57, was
also to comment on the purpose of the IIW Commissions regarding research.
‘One of the greatest virtues of IIW is perhaps that it provides a mechanism
for exchange of information and the stimulation for further research.’
2
He
was to add, ‘This exchange should be looked upon in its broadest aspects. It
means not only the exchange of factual data and experiences, but also of new
ideas in the form of hypothesis and suggestions for further research.’ Other
comments by Biers on the conduct of research included, ‘Wise men have
often said that the closed door keeps out more than it keeps in’
3
and ‘IIW
hence, since its formation, acted as a clearing house in which the discoveries
of each are put at the disposal of all’.
4
Mr R.V. Salkin (Belgium) IIW President 1987-1989, was to reiterate what Biers and
Goldschmidt-Clermont had said in the commentary he gave on the 40th Anniversary of IIW
in 1988. ‘The work of the Commissions also constitutes a forum to which the best experts
in the world come to make known the results of their work and to bring their contribution to
the preparation of survey documents accessible to all.’
5
It was precepts such as this that the Institute was founded upon, driven primarily
through the work of the Commissions, which were defined at the first meeting of
Commissions in Delft, The Netherlands in May 1949. In all, there were 12 Commissions
which held their first ever meetings at this Assembly. These meetings saw the development