In the history of biology in the 20th century, the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology have served an almost unique purpose by every summer bringing together groups of the world’s leading scientists irrespective of race or nationality, to discuss and debate particular topics at times when those fields were making rapid progress. At each Symposium, scientific advances in the chosen field were celebrated not only amongst attending participants, but also through publication of the conference proceedings, to a wider audience of researchers. Started in 1933, the history of the Symposia in many ways reflect the history of biological discovery in this century - and frequently, major discoveries in biology were first publicly announced, discussed or debated at the annual Symposium. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory aims to preserve and maintain the pivotal importance of its annual Symposium to biological and biomedical research in the 21st century.

For the past eighty years, CSHL meetings and courses has nurtured a plethora of prominent scientists, including many Noble laureates, helping to propel the advancement of modern biology. Every year, more than 8,000 researchers from around the world come to CSHL to participate in a wide range of meetings and courses. The Laboratory has a long and distinguished history of being the forum where new discoveries, concepts and scientific techniques are discussed. The Laboratory’s famous Banbury Center meetings are small, by-invitation conferences that are acknowledged as being amongst the world's best discussion workshops for topics in molecular biology, molecular genetics and science policy, and have often proved to have an impact and significance far in excess of expectations. Through these programs, CSHL has effectively helped to foster the birth and development of many divergent fields in biology.