Photo gallery: 50 years of the <em>IARC Monographs</em>

We have collected some photos illustrating the history and evolution of the IARC Monographs over the first 50 years of the programme since it was founded in 1971.

Heads of the IARC Monographs programme

The first Head of the IARC Monographs programme was Lorenzo Tomatis, who was instrumental in its creation in 1971, when he was Chief of the Division of Carcinogenicity at IARC, and who led the programme until he became IARC Director in 1983. Dr Tomatis has been followed by a number of prominent scientists drawn to IARC from around the world.

Lorenzo Tomatis, 1971–1982
(died in 2007)

Harry Vainio, 1983–1994

Jerry Rice, 1996–2002

Vincent Cogliano, 2003–2010

Kurt Straif, 2011–2018

Dana Loomis, 2017

Mary Schubauer-Berigan, 2020 to present

Diversity in the Working Group

Since 1971, over 1300 scientists from more than 50 countries have participated in IARC Monographs meetings. Diversity in the Working Group has been increasing and the “Call for Experts” for each meeting now explicitly states that nominations are encouraged of scientists whose relevant publications may not be found through standard literature searches, of women, and of candidates from low- and middle-income countries.

Preparatory meeting for Volume 1, 1971

In 1982, geographical diversity had started to increase

By 2003, gender and geographical diversity had greatly improved

Over recent years, the proportion of scientists who are female has been increasing

Since 1971, more than 1300 scientists from over 50 countries have participated in IARC Monographs meetings

Evolution in technology: the past

In the early years of the IARC Monographs programme, the development of a Monograph was primarily paper-based. References were catalogued on cards and stored on microfiche. All drafts, publications, and reports were printed before review by the Working Group. Text and figures were projected using an overhead projector. The final Monograph would have been typed up for printing.

Cover of Volume 1, published in December 1972

Draft text for Volume 1, written on a typewriter

“Cut and paste” text editing

Table creation, the old-fashioned way

Card-filing cabinet for cataloguing scientific references

Overhead projector used in meetings

Slide projector used in meetings

Microfiche reader for scientific articles

Meetings involved a lot of paper

And more paper!

Evolution in technology: the present

In the 50 years since its creation, the IARC Monographs programme has continually sought to improve and innovate in the procedures it uses, not only in the review of potential carcinogenic hazards, but also in the organization of Monographs meetings and in the publication and dissemination process. The Preamble to the IARC Monographs is regularly updated. New processes and tools have been developed and integrated that aid systematic literature review (Health Assessment Workspace Collaborative, HAWC), and the evaluation of high-throughput mechanistic data on the key characteristics of carcinogens (“kc-hits”). An online content management system was created in-house (IARC Online Publications System, IOPS). The Table Builder tool is used to produce evidence tables from peer-reviewed literature. Desktop automated layout and online publishing were adopted and the iconic orange volume was given a fresh look.