During the 2nd IJCPR (Int. Joint Conf. on Pattern Recognition), the Standing Committee approved the proposal of establishing a permanent international professional organization for pattern recognition. After one year of preparation, IAPR was formally founded during the 3rd IJCPR in Coronado, USA (1976). The IAPR Constitution was approved by the Standing Committee and ExCo officers were elected. Three committees (Publication, Conference and Membership) were organized. A special committee drafted the Bylaws which were approved by the Standing Committee in early 1977. The 4th IJCPR was the first IAPR sponsored conference.
| Location | General Chair | ||
| 1973 | 1st IJCPR | Washington D.C., USA | K.S. Fu |
| 1974 | 2nd IJCPR | Copenhagen, Denmark | C.J.D.M. Verhagen |
| 1976 | 3rd IJCPR | Coronado, USA | A. Rosenfeld |
| 1978 | 4th IJCPR | Kyoto, Japan | M. Nagao |
| 1980 | 5th ICPR | Miami, USA | T. Pavlidis |
| 1982 | 6th ICPR | Munich, Germany | H. Marko |
| 1984 | 7th ICPR | Montreal, Canada | M.D. Levine |
| 1986 | 8th ICPR | Paris, France | J.-C. Simon |
| 1988 | 9th ICPR | Rome, Italy | S. Levialdi |
| 1990 | 10th ICPR | Atlantic City, USA | H. Freeman |
| 1992 | 11th ICPR | The Hague, The Netherlands | E.S. Gelsema & E. Backer |
| 1994 | 12th ICPR | Jerusalem, Israel | S. Peleg & S. Ullman |
| 1996 | 13th ICPR | Vienna, Austria | W.G. Kropatsch |
| 1998 | 14th ICPR | Brisbane, Australia | T. Caelli & A. Maeder |
| 2000 | 15th ICPR | Barcelona, Spain | A. Sanfeliu & J.J. Villanueva |
| 2002 | 16th ICPR | Quebec City Canada | C.Y. Suen |
| 2004 | 17th ICPR | Cambridge, UK | J. Kittler |
| 2006 | 18th ICPR | Hong Kong | Yuan Yan Tang |
| 2008 | 19th ICPR | Tampa, USA | R. Kasturi |
| 2010 | 20th ICPR | Istanbul, Turkey | Aytul Ercil |
| 2012 | 21th ICPR | Tsukuba Science City, Japan | J.-O. Eklundh & Y. Ohta & S. Tanimoto |
| 2014 | 22nd ICPR | Stockholm, Sweden | Magnus Borga |
| 2016 | 23rd ICPR | Cancun, Mexico | Eduardo Bayro-Corrochano |
| 2018 | 24th ICPR | Beijing, China | Tieniu Tan & Josef Kittler & Anil Jain |
| 2020 | 25th ICPR | Milan, Italy | Rita Cucchiara & Alberto Del Bimbo & Stan Sclaroff |
| 1976-1978 | King Sun Fu |
| 1978-1980 | Herbert Freeman |
| 1980-1982 | Azriel Rosenfeld |
| 1982-1984 | Jean Claude Simon |
| 1984-1986 | Toshiyuki Sakai |
| 1986-1988 | Pierre A. Devijver |
| 1988-1990 | Martin D. Levine |
| 1990-1992 | Michael J.B. Duff |
| 1992-1994 | J.K. Aggarwal |
| 1994-1996 | Josef Kittler |
| 1996-1998 | Robert M. Haralick |
| 1998-Mar 2000 | Edzard Gelsema |
| Mar-Sept 2000 | Horst Bunke |
| 2000-2002 | Gabriella Sanniti di Baja |
| 2002-2004 | Rangachar Kasturi |
| 2004-2006 | Walter Kropatsch |
| 2006-2008 | Karl Tombre |
| 2008-2010 | Brian Lovell |
| 2010-2012 | Denis Laurendeau |
| 2012-2014 | Kim L. Boyer |
| 2014-2016 | Ingela Nystrom |
| 2016-2018 | Simone Marinai |
| 2018-2020 | Apostolos Antonacopoulos |
| 2020-2022 | Daniel Lopresti |