In 1987, researchers from 11 U.S. institutions met together in Carbondale, IL for the first Gibbs Conference on Biothermodynamics. Their goal was to foster more innovative applications in the field of biological thermodynamics than had been traditionally envisioned.

Since its inception, these annual conferences have grown and a society was formed and named after Josiah Willard Gibbs, a mathematical physicist who laid much of the foundation for chemical thermodynamics. The Gibbs Society of Biological Thermodynamics is incorporated as a nonprofit 501(c) organization. Student and postdoctoral fellow participation from laboratories whose research intersects with the discipline of biological thermodynamics is stressed in order to further the aims of the society in future research.

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