The beginning of the Geo-Heat Center (GHC) can be traced to an international conference held on geothermal energy at the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) campus during October of 1974. The meeting was organized to review non-electric, multipurpose uses of geothermal energy in Hungary, Iceland, New Zealand, the United States and Russia (USSR). As a result of the conference and interest in the need to exchange and disseminate information on low-to-moderate temperature resources and their utilization, the Geo-Heat Center (first known as the Geo-Heat Utilization Center) was established in 1975