IMI History
Our History
Today
IMI is located in beautiful Sonoma County, home of HP / Agilent Technologies, the original Luther Burbank Experimental Farm, redwood trees, magnificent coastlines and legendary wineries. We are dedicated to designing and providing high quality radiation detection instruments for global markets in public health and safety, medicine, research and environmental protection.
March 2012
Over 3 million radiation data points published by Safecast supported by IMI instruments and technology.
April 2011
After the March 11, 2011 earthquake and resulting radiation leak at Fukushima Diachi in Japan it became clear that people wanted more data than what was available about the earthquake, resulting tsunami and damage to nuclear power facilities. Through joint efforts with partners such as International Medcom Inc., Keio University and MIT Media Labs, Safecast has een building a radiation sensor network comprised of static and mobile sensors actively being deployed around Japan—both near the exclusion zone and elsewhere in the country.
2011
IMI responds to Fukushima disaster with donations of radiation detection instruments and systems. Dan Sythe travels to Japan and becomes advisor to Safecast, a non-profit organization dedicated to open data. Collaborations with MIT Media Lab, Keio University and others create new mapping and publishing technologies for displaying data.
SAFECAST
April
Safecast is a non-profit group building Geiger counter instrumentation to measure radiation levels and making the data available to the public through internet maps, information on their website and data feeds to citizens, scientists and the public.
Safecast is releasing their data openly and working hard to have the Japanese government, Universities and researchers do the same in sharing their medical findings and other useful data. www.safecast.org
Commitment to Environment and Community
SAFECAST
IMI is collaborating with Safecast on new open source instruments and systems.
Stay tuned for new developments.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. It is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986.
IMI has been a pioneer in sustainable practices since the beginning, back in 1986. Recycling, elimination of toxic materials in manufacturing, minimization of waste, compliance to safety standards, are all part of a carefully nurtured culture within our community of shareholders, employees, and our Board of Directors. Our Headquarters in Sebastopol California are powered by solar panels on our rooftop. We maintain a healthy toxic-free environment for our employees. We make all of our decisions with the idea that we humans have a responsibility to leave a healthy environment for future generations.
Donations of our time, instruments, and knowledge have served, and continue to serve, numerous communities across the globe.
2004
IMI introduces Iospectra 1320 environmental probe for continuous outdoor monitoring of alpha, beta, gamma radiation.
2005
1320 AO Probes deployed in New York City at the
United Nations meeting and around public events.
2008
Hawk™ Environmental Radiation Monitoring System introduced.
Our Roots
1960’s
Physicist Joe Jaffe creates Smith Kline Instrumentation Division, pioneers diagnostic ultrasound technologies as Director of Instrument Research and Development. Joe Jaffe later becomes IMI’s founding Chairman of the Board.
1970’s
Dan Sythe is co-founder of Solar Electronics International now (S.E. International) – leads team to develop instruments for radiation detection and biomedical instrumentation. Joe Jaffe provides early capital and technology. Dan Sythe later becomes Founding CEO of IMI.
1981
Dan Sythe and team develop Monitor 4, a compact, low power analog radiation detection instrument.
1986
International Medcom, Inc. is incorporated in Palo Alto, California, by Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich, & Rosati.
1987
Original Radalert ™ nuclear radiation detection instrument with Alert feature developed at IMI.
1988
Dr. Karl “KZ” Morgan, “Father of Modern Health Physics,” in his role as Chairman of the Three Mile Island Public Health Fund Scientifc Advisory Board, works with IMI to create a model pilot radiation monitoring system for communities around nuclear facilities.
1989
IMI develops early versions of what is now known as the Inspector, based on IMI’s original Radalert design. These are pocket sized, low power, digital surface contamination detectors.
1990
Dan Sythe travels to Belarus, Russia as a volunteer with NRDC on Chernobyl problems, and nuclear arms control issues. Meets with Kurchatov Institute Scientists over Chernobyl and Nuclear Proliferation Issues.
The C-10 Research and Education Foundation (C-10) was established in 1991 to address the health and safety issues related to the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant. C-10 is a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization that operates
with funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
1991
IMI develops the Inspector Surface Contamination
Monitor based on IMI’s Radalert design. License
agreement with S.E. International created for Inspector.
Deployment of TMI monitoring system begins.
1994
Inspector Surface Contamination Monitor.
Radalert 50 radiation detection.
instrument with newly designed user adjustable alert feature.
1996
IMI pioneers PC-Based real time radiation monitoring technologies for Citizens Radiological Monitoring Network, C-10 Foundation, Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
IMI develops Vista 1600 broad-spectrum probe for use in all weather conditions.
IMI develops Vista 240 probe for gamma radiation in all weather conditions.
IMI develops integrated Vista Real Time Radiation Monitoring System.
2002
9/11 concerns create tremendous demand for radiation detection instruments, education and training. IMI makes major commitment to addressing these issues.
Dan Sythe travels to meet with leaders in Health and Safety Communities.
FDNY, New York State Police, NY Department of Environmental Protection, NY Governor’s Office all chose IMI instruments to protect citizens of New York.
IMI Radalert ™ Geiger Counters deployed in every fire truck in NYC.
IMI introduces Iospectra 1320 environmental probe for continuous outdoor monitoring of alpha, beta, gamma radiation.
Fire Departments across the globe chose IMI instruments to protect their communities.
2004
IMI introduces Iospectra 1320 environmental probe for continuous outdoor monitoring of alpha, beta, gamma radiation.
2005
1320 AO Probes deployed in New York City at the United Nations meeting and around public events.
2008
Hawk™ Environmental Radiation Monitoring System introduced.
World Events
1945
Cold War – Nuclear age and ensuring arms race begins.
Thousands are affected by nuclear weapons production and testing.
1979
The Three Mile Island accident with a partial nuclear meltdown at the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania. It was the worst accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history, and resulted in the release of some radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment, and documentable stress and distrust in surrounding communities.
1986
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe. It is widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and is one of only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale
1991
The C-10 Research and Education Foundation (C-10) was established in 1991 to address the health and safety issues related to the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant. C-10 is a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization that operates with funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
1991
Los Alamos National Laboratories Project SWOOPE (Students Watching Over Our Planet Earth) selects IMI Radmeter for its nationwide education project.
2001
9/11 series of four attacks that were committed in the United States
Coordinated to strike areas of New York City and Washington, D.C.
2003
Department of Homeland Security formed.