The seven-week Summer Institute of Glaciological Sciences was organized in 1960 and presented each summer through 1970 to provide academic and field training, primarily at the graduate level, for potential polar and mountain scientists.

The first five weeks were held on the Juneau Icefield in the Alaska-British Columbia Coast Range near Juneau, Alaska, the next week was used for specific field problems, the final week was conducted in a peripheral area of deglaciated terrain. In addition to academic offerings (lectures at field sites, demonstrations with instruments/materials in the field, taking/recording scientific measurements in actual field research programs), the Institute provided practical training/experience in field work in a variety of sub-Arctic to high-Arctic and mountain expeditionary environments.

Organized through the College of Natural Science at Michigan State University, eight catalogued courses were offered: Field Glaciology, Periglacial Geomorphology, Glacio-ecology, Glacio-lichenometry, Glacier Mechanics, Glacier Surveying, Terrestrial and Glacier Photogrammetry, and Field Problems. The Institutes were funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation and from 1966 – 1970 by financial help provided to the instructional program by MSU. The Reader’s Digest Foundation in New York and the Talbert and Leota Abrams Foundation in Michigan provided grants to support operational expenses. In 1970, the Foundation for Glacier and Environmental Research made available its considerable facilities to the Institute without charge and provided substantial funds for the repair, improvement and expansion of key facilities in the field.