The origin of our Commission can be traced to a highly successful, one-day Session on “Strategies for the Search for Life in the Universe” which we organized in 1979 at the 17-th IAU General Assembly in Montreal. When on the next evening Frank Drake and myself gave a report on this Session to the IAU in an open meeting, the large auditorium of the University of Montreal was packed to standing room only with more than 1,000 astronomers from all around the world, confirming the unexpectedly strong interest that indeed existed among astronomers on this subject.