In 1976, an interdisciplinary group of international researchers met in Amsterdam to share their knowledge about sediment–water interactions, and subsequently formed the International Association for Sediment Water Science (IASWS). Since then, IASWS has met tri-annually at a variety of locations throughout the world. Over the last 30 years, over 1000 oral presentations have been presented at IASWS symposia, more than half of which have been published as books or special issues of scientific journals. As such, the publications provide an excellent record of developments in the field of sediment–water interactions over the last 30 years. This paper provides an overview of the history of the Association, and a qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the IASWS publications. Changing patterns of research in some of the dominant symposia themes, including sediment-associated nutrients, contaminants and metals as well as sediment dynamics and material cycling are presented. Temporal changes in the investigative scale of published studies and an eventual increase in papers addressing management considerations were observed. Potential directions for the future of IASWS and some directives for ensuring that future research informs aquatic ecosystem health are suggested.