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Although student/young participation in Pugwash events was generally welcomed, persuading Pugwash to allow the formation of formal Student/Young Pugwash groups was a different matter altogether. The reservations of "senior" Pugwashites in this context mainly revolved around the desirability and feasibility of formal Student/Young Pugwash groups, and, if such groups were indeed allowed to be formed, what the exact nature of the relationship between these groups and Pugwash would be. The then Secretary-General of the Pugwash Conferences, Dr. Martin Kaplan, played an invaluable role in the process that led to the eventual decision to allow the formation of Student/Young Pugwash groups. Consequently, a group was established in 1979 when Jeff Leifer and some of his fellow students at the University of California in San Diego founded International Student Pugwash (renamed Student Pugwash USA, or SPUSA, in the early 1980s). In the same year, a Student Pugwash group was also launched in Canada. Since then, Student/Young Pugwash groups have been formed in over 30 countries around the world, in many cases with the direct involvement of Pugwash members. As time would prove, the successful development of Student/Young Pugwash activities required a symbiotic association with the "senior" Pugwash community, developing an intergenerational exchange of ideas and projects. Organising conferences for students and young professionals has been one of the most important activities of Student/Young Pugwash [6]. The first Student/Young Pugwash conference was organised in the Netherlands in 1988, followed by similar conferences in St. Petersburg, Russia (September 1990) and Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada (August 1992). In 1997 a Student/Young Pugwash conference was held in Lillehammer, Norway, prior to the annual Pugwash conference and thus initiated a tradition that has continued until today. To date, Student/Young Pugwash conferences have been held prior to the annual Pugwash Conferences in Metepec/Jurica, Mexico (1998), Rustenburg, ...