The idea of forming the International Association of Manichaean Studies (IAMS) was advanced at the First International Conference of Manichaean Studies held in Lund in 1987. The success of the conference had generated a genuine spirit of international and inter-disciplinary co-operation which all the participants wished to preserve and foster through the formation of a learned society. IAMS was officially constituted at the Second International Conference at Sankt Augustin near Bonn in 1989, where Professor Kurt Rudolph became its first president (1989–1997). The annual Manichaean Studies Newsletter, which originally was a private initiative by Dr Aloïs van Tongerloo, became the newsletter of IAMS; for many years it has now been edited by Assoc. Professor Gunner Mikkelsen. At the Third International Conference held at Rende in 1993, it was decided that these conferences should henceforth take place once every four years but members were encouraged to organize theme-based symposia in the intervening years. The Fourth International Conference took place in Berlin in 1997; here Professor Johannes van Oort became the second president (1997–2009). The Fifth International Conference was held at Naples in 2001, and the Sixth International Conference at Flagstaff in 2005. Professor Samuel Lieu became the third president (2009–2013) at the Seventh International Conference in 2009 in Dublin. The Eighth International Conference took place at London in 2013; here Dr Enrico Morano became the fourth president (2013–2017). At the Ninth International Conference at Turin in 2017, Professor Nils Arne Pedersen became the fifth president. The Tenth International Conference was held in Aarhus in 2022; here Professor Jason BeDuhn became the sixth president.
