In 1950 a group of highly respected representatives of various medical disciplines founds the "Swiss Society for Allergy" (article at the occasion of the 70-year anniversary) and organises the first International Congress for Allergology in Zurich in 1951.

In the years between 1956 – 1969 alongside allergology, the field of clinical immunology is expanding more and more to include immunodeficiency disorders, autoimmune diseases, transplantations, tumour immunology, dermatology etc. Immunology research plays a central role in all of this. Switzerland is making its mark with important academic articles and the emergence of internationally renowned institutions of immunology, as well as the fundamental research being carried out in Basel, Lausanne and Davos.

In the years between 1968/69 departments and outpatient clinics for “allergology and clinical immunology” are established in all Swiss university towns and institutes.

In 1972 the Swiss Society for Allergology and Immunology (SSAI) is founded . It brings together allergology, clinical immunology, and basic immunology within a single society. The presidency rotates every two years among representatives of these specialties. Intensive collaborations begin with many international immunology societies.

From 1972 to the present, the SGAI has regularly organized congresses: the SSAI Annual Congress, the Wolfsberg Meeting, and the “Allergology and Immunology Update” (AIU). The SSAI is committed to supporting young and aspiring physicians and scientists, participates in career congresses and other events, and awards travel grants to PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and residents within six years of obtaining their doctorate.

In 1974 a postgraduate course in immunology supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation was also introduced.  

1984/85 What had previously been the case for a national network for HLA typing now also applies to an "HIV/AIDS" network.

Various developments take place within fundamental research in Switzerland: 

In 1988, the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF) was established in Davos, emerging from a pre-existing Institute of Experimental Immunology. In 1992, the Institute of Experimental Immunology was founded in Zurich, evolving from the Institute of Experimental Pathology, which had been established in 1980.

In advance, from 1995 onward, basic immunology increasingly became an integral part of all biologically oriented faculties worldwide, including in Switzerland. In 2000, the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB) was founded in Bellinzona.

Clinically-oriented immunologists have been gaining an ever-greater foothold over the preceding years and are becoming increasingly recognised.

1993 Allergology and immunology become a fully recognized and independent medical specialty, which had already begun in 1973 with the introduction of a certificate of competence. In 1984, immunology became an independent field within the FAMH (Swiss Society for Laboratory Medicine).

In 2002 the non-profit foundation "aha! Swiss Allergy Centre" was established, working closely with the SSAI.

Current status of the SSAI:
Between 600 and 700 members, 13 board members, 9 commissions and subcommissions, 14 delegates for national organizations, 5 delegates for international organizations in immunology and allergology, as well as a managing director and an executive assistant with an office in Bern.

• Chronicle: The detailed history of the SSAI
• Professional policy facts
• SSAI Presidents
• SSAI Honorary Members
• Obituary Ulrich R. Müller