IsoLab has roots in the Quaternary Isotope Laboratory, founded and directed by Dr. Minze Stuiver between 1969 and 2002. Stuiver, now Professor Emeritus in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, is internationally recognized for his numerous contributions to Quaternary climate and environmental research, and is one of the top-five most highly cited researchers in the field of geosciences. He is best known for his work on Δ¹⁴C from tree rings, still used as one of the key data sets for radiocarbon calibration, and on the δ¹⁸O record from Greenland ice cores, instrumental in the discovery of rapid climate change. IsoLab, in its current incarnation, was co-founded in 2001 by Eric J. Steig (a former student of Stuiver) and Roger Buick, and was later joined by Peter Ward, Becky Alexander, and Kate Huntington.