The ISL was established on March, 30th 1954, founded as the Institute of Shipping Research in the legal form of an non-profit private foundation, with the purpose to carry out scientific research and to promote shipping. It is emerged from the Foundation for the Promotion of the Establishment of an International University in Bremen, which was established in June 1948 by the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. This year, the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics, or briefly ISL, celebrates its sixty-year anniversary.