The San Diego AALAS Branch was formed in 1966 by a group of dedicated individuals from the Salk Institute, UCSD, and Scripps. Wesley Hendricks of UCSD was the first Branch President. The SDAALAS Branch was instrumental in initiating a training program for animal technicians at San Diego City College. At this time the Animal Technician Certification Program, established in 1961, was developed, administered, and graded by the branches. Some of our existing members were involved in this testing which gradually became a central AALAS office function. San Diego hosted its first District 8 meeting in 1975, the venue being Vacation Village on Mission Bay. This was followed in 1986 where the venue for the second District 8 meeting was the Holiday Inn Embarcadero. Our most recent District 8 meeting took place in 2007 at the Scottish Rite Center. All of our District meetings have been hugely successful and well attended events attracting technicians countrywide.

The National AALAS meeting was hosted in San Diego in 2000 and is scheduled to grace our wonderful city again in 2011.

Our Branch membership continues to increase each year and we are currently over 600 strong. Branch leadership is committed to educating and promoting the laboratory animal science community and we strive to represent the membership to the fullest extent.