The International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz), begun in 1974, is the oldest and largest continuous forum specifically devoted to the field of ultra high frequency electronics and applications. In 2004 the original conference series – International Conference on Infrared and Millimeter Waves (IRMMW) joined up with the International Conference on THz Electronics to form the Joint 29th International Conference on Infrared and Millimeter Waves and the 12th International Conference on Terahertz Electronics (IRMMW-THz 2004). In 2008 the conference name was shortened to the 33rd International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, keeping the same general acronym: IRMMW-THz 20XX. In 2009 the conference series was formally incorporated into a mutual benefit science society registered in the state of California, USA. The society was granted full non-profit status as a US 501c3 corporation in May 2016. The International Society of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz) has the mission statement: “Promoting the worldwide collection, dissemination and exchange of scientific and technical knowledge in the areas and disciplines involving infrared, millimeter, and terahertz waves.” The IRMMW-THz Society has a permanent Board of Directors, official By-Laws, and independent financial resources, and will assure the continuation of the conference series for the foreseeable future.

The IRMMW conference and its long standing accompanying monthly publication, The Journal of Infrared, Millimeter and Terahertz Waves, were among the very first scientific outlets for the burgeoning field of far infrared components and instruments that arose in the mid 1970s. The scope of the conference extends from millimeter wave devices, components and systems to far-infrared detectors and instruments, and encompasses micro- and nano-scale structures to large-scale accelerators and Tokamaks and their applications. In 2011 a new focused THz journal, IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology was added to the list of linked technical outlets for members of the IRMMW-THz Society.

The international organizing committee is composed of world-recognized experts from countries across the globe. The conference typically alternates between the USA, Asia and Europe on a three year cycle. Past conferences have been supported by US agencies such as IEEE, APS, DOE and DoD and dozens of local societies within the hosting countries. In 2003 both the IRMMW and THz Electronics conferences were held sequentially in Japan. Total attendees for both events was 520 registrants from 18 countries with 340 submitted papers. After 2003 the two conferences joined and attendance in 2004 (Karlsruhe, Germany) exceeded 450 scientists from 28 countries with over 400 contributed papers. From 2005 to 2019 the attendance grew slowly reaching a peak of over 1000 for our 44th conference in 2019 in Paris, France. Covid-19 forced the 2020 and 2021 venues (Buffalo, NY, USA and Chengdu, China) to all virtual platforms, but the attendance was well over 1100 at each event and paper counts were above 800 for each of these venues. In 2022 we returned to an in person conference experience in Delft, NL with a hybrid option for those who could not attend. This year, we plan to return to a live, in person conference as travel restrictions lift around the world.

Sandwiched between the optical on the short wavelength side and radio on the long wavelength extreme, the Terahertz or Far-Infrared has long been considered the last remaining scientific gap in the electromagnetic spectrum. Due to the historic role the IRMMW conference has played in bridging this gap by bringing together international researchers in many diverse fields – from space science to nuclear fusion – and recently chemistry and biology, the organizing committees would again like to reach out to scientists in adjacent fields who can benefit from recent developments in the far-IR.

In the last few years interest in terahertz imaging and spectroscopy from the biology, security, ultra-fast chemistry and health science communities has grown exponentially as new instrumentation and techniques have begun to make their way into many laboratories world-wide. This is especially the case in Europe and Japan, both of which have thriving cross-disciplinary programs supporting new applications in this frequency domain.

As a consequence the conference organizing committees have significantly expanded the scope and the participating research communities. They have now included a special focus on terahertz techniques and applications, including both the traditional radio frequency domain, and the new fast pulse time domain approaches to generating, detecting and using high frequency energy. The conference offers the attendee a chance to hear and participate in a wide range of topic areas that span all aspects of Infrared, Terahertz and Millimeter-Wave (IR, THz, and MMW) technology and applications from quantum physics, chemistry, and biology to radio astronomy, plasma physics and security.

Over the coming years we are looking forward to very well attended and internationally supported cross-disciplinary conference venues that will set IRMMW-THz up as the pre-eminent conference for information exchange in the “Terahertz Gap.”

For more information, please visit www.irmmw-thz.org.