Alcor has been the world leader in cryonics and preservation science for over half a century. Explore who we are, what we do, and how we're continuing to pioneer the future of this growing industry.
Becoming an Alcor member is easy – and surprisingly affordable. If you’re looking to sign up for cryonics, you’ve come to the right place.
Alcor is the world leader in cryonics, with the most advanced technology of any cryonics organization. We’re constantly innovating and improving.
Alcor was incorporated in California in 1972 by Fred and Linda Chamberlain. Fred is now cryopreserved at Alcor, and Linda still works here.
While Alcor is based in the United States, our cryonics and standby services are accessible to individuals worldwide.
When Fred’s father suffered a debilitating stroke in the mid-1960s, Fred and Linda Chamberlain refused to accept medicine’s limitations. Driven by love and determination, they incorporated the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in California in 1972.
The early years demanded everything. Working tirelessly, they spent years developing protocols and building the infrastructure needed to make their vision a reality. In July 1976, Fred’s father became Alcor’s first patient, undergoing neuropreservation. Their personal mission had become a reality.
With the organization in good hands, they stepped back to enjoy a well-deserved respite. The organization relocated to Arizona in 1994, but the call of duty brought Fred and Linda back in 1997, with Fred serving as President and Linda as Suspension Manager. In March 2012, as Fred’s own health declined, Fred chose to be cryopreserved and cared for by Alcor, the organization he and Linda had built throughout their lives together. to provide the best possible standby and transport capabilities.
With her mother, father-in-law, and husband all in Alcor’s care, Linda’s commitment remains deeply personal. Her dedication to the organization remains as strong as ever, and she continues to work for Alcor to this day. What began as one couple’s life’s mission has evolved into a world-class organization serving thousands of families for over half a century.
Our Mission
To save lives through the following prioritized principles:
- 1. Maintain the current patients in biostasis.
- 2. Place current and future members into biostasis (when and if needed).
- 3. Eventually restore to health and reintegrate into society all patients in Alcor’s care.
- 4. Fund research into developing more cost effective and reliable means for 1–3 above.
- 5. Provide public education as a means of fostering growth to support the goals of 1, 2, 3, 4 above.
This map was prepared prior to choosing Scottsdale as a location for Alcor. The Phoenix/Scottsdale metropolitan area is marked with a star, and is within the absolute lowest risk area for various natural disasters.
The shaded areas represent a composite for four types of natural disasters: earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, and blizzards. The dark, medium, and light shading represents higher, moderate, and lower risk areas, respectively.
Based in the U.S.
Alcor is rapidly expanding beyond the U.S., with established teams in Canada and active development toward our European headquarters. Building on our existing global deployment and recovery capabilities, we’re establishing permanent presence across continents to ensure even greater consistency in high-quality care. Our advanced training protocols and procedures maintain the same exceptional standards worldwide.
While Alcor began as a bold scientific experiment, it has evolved into an industry leading cryonics service provider with over half a century of experience. The timeline below traces Alcor’s remarkable journey from the theoretical foundations of cryonics, to modern cryonics practice, showcasing decades of progress that have transformed what once seemed impossible into a carefully refined process at our state-of-the-art facility.
1964 – Cryonics Becomes a Groundbreaking Idea
A physics teacher named Robert Ettinger published the landmark book, The Prospect of Immortality, in which he laid out a rational case for the concept of cryonics to a wide audience.
0 Members, 0 Patients
1967 – Freezing of James Bedford
A retired psychology professor named James Beford becomes the first person preserved under controlled conditions for possible eventual restoration.
0 Members, 0 Patients
1972 – Alcor Incorporated
Alcor was incorporated in the state of California by Fred and Linda Chamberlain. It was named after a star that had just the right brightness that it was used as a test for clear vision. The nonprofit organization was conceived as a technology-oriented cryonics organization that would be managed on a fiscally conservative basis by a self perpetuating Board.
5 Members, 0 Patients
1976 – Alcor Performs First Human Cryopreservation
Alcor performed its first human cryopreservation. That same year, research in cryonics began with initial funding provided by the Manrise Corporation. At this time, Alcor’s office consisted of a mobile surgical unit in a large van. Trans Time, Inc., a cryonics organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, provided long-term patient storage for Alcor until Alcor began doing its own storage in 1982.
12 Members, 1 Patient
1977 – Cryonics Efforts Merge
In 1977 articles of incorporation for two cryonics organizations were filed in Indianapolis. The Institute for Advanced Biological Studies (IABS) was a nonprofit research startup led by a young cryonics enthusiast named Steve Bridge. IABS later published the first issue of Cryonics magazine. Soma, Inc., was formed by Michael Darwin to provide cryopreservation and human storage services. Both organizations relocated to California in 1981. IABS merged with Alcor in 1982 and Soma was disbanded. Both Mike Darwin and Steve Bridge later served terms as President of Alcor.
15 Members, 1 Patient
1978 – Cryonics Model Further Developed
In 1978 Cryovita Laboratories, Inc., was founded by Jerry Leaf, a cardiothoracic surgery researcher and teacher at UCLA. Cryovita provided cryopreservation services for Alcor in the 1980s. During this time Leaf also collaborated with Michael Darwin in a series of hypothermia experiments in which large animals were resuscitated with no measurable neurological deficit after four hours in deep hypothermia, just a few degrees above zero Celsius. The blood substitute which was developed for these experiments became the basis for the blood substitute solution used at Alcor. Leaf was cropreserved in 1991.
19 Members, 1 Patient
1986 – New Building in Riverside
Some of Alcor’s members formed Symbex, a small investment company which funded a building in Riverside, California, for lease by Alcor. Alcor moved from Fullerton, California, to the new building in Riverside in 1987. Alcor first cryopreserved a member’s companion animal in 1986. That same year, Eric Drexler introduced the concept of molecular nanotechnology to a wide audience in his landmark book, Engines of Creation.
85 Members, 5 Patients
1987 – Alcor Assumes Care of Dr. James Bedford
Alcor assumed care of Dr. James Bedford, the first person to be cryopreserved with successful achievement of long term care. After cryopreservation in 1967, Dr. Bedford had previously been cared for by three different companies under supervision of his family.
100 Members, 8 Patients
1994 – Alcor Moves to Scottsdale
In response to concerns that the California facility was too small and vulnerable to earthquake risk, a limited liability company was formed by several Alcor members and Alcor’s Patient Care Fund to purchase a building in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1993 and Alcor moved there the following year.
354 Members, 27 Patients
1997 – Patient Care Trust Established
Alcor formed the Patient Care Trust as a separate entity to manage and protect the long-term funding for cryopatients. Alcor remains the only cryonics organization to segregate and protect patient funding in this way.
430 Members, 35 Patients
2001 – Brain Vitrification Achieved
Alcor adapted cryoprotectant formulas from published scientific literature into a more concentrated formula (called B2C) capable of achieving ice-free structural preservation (vitrification) of the human brain. The limitation that B2C could not be used to perfuse whole bodies was not overcome until 2005.
555 Members, 42 Patients
2003 – Major Website Upgrade
The Alcor Website Working Group was created, consisting of volunteers who created a huge online library of cryonics information and who provide in-house control over the website update process. The next new website design in 2014 was hired out, but the new design in 2020 was completely done by our volunteers.
661 Members, 61 Patients
2004 – Brain Vitrification Published in Scientific Journal
Alcor participated in the publication of a scientific paper in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, showing for the first time that ice-free structural preservation (vitrification) of a mammalian brain was possible using the “M22” vitrification solution that was originally developed for kidney cryopreservation.
713 Members, 68 Patients
2005 – Alcor 2.0
Two huge steps forward occurred in 2005. (1) Alcor began using the new vitrification solution (M22) developed for mainstream organ cryopreservation research, and using it for both whole body and neuropatients. (2) The Alcor Comprehensive Member Standby program was implemented, which provides all-important (and expensive to deploy) standby services for all Alcor members in the continental U.S. and Canada. Now every member in the covered area receives the best logistically possible complement of standby and transport capability.
786 Members, 71 Patients
2009 – Expanded Standby Capability
Agreement with Suspended Animation, Inc., gives Alcor an ability to provide patient standby, stabilization, and transport within the continental United States using professional cardiothoracic surgeons and perfusionists.
913 Members, 93 Patients
2014 – Field Cryoprotection Technology
Deployment of field cryoprotection technology allows upgraded response in Canada and Europe.
1,010 Members, 133 Patients
2015 – Evidence for Long-Term Memory Preservation
Alcor collaborative research on persistence of long-term memory in vitrified and revived simple animals (nematodes) shows that memory can survive cryopreservation. Also, Alcor book Preserving Minds, Saving Lives published.
1,054 Members, 143 Patients
2018 – Alcor Care Trust and Alcor Endowment Trust
The formation of two independent 501(c)(3) supporting organization trusts allowed even greater liability protection for investments from the Patient Care Trust and the Alcor Endowment Fund.
1,236 Members, 164 Patients
2023 – Alcor Forms D.A.R.T (Deployment and Recovery Team)
In 2023, Alcor launches its groundbreaking Deployment and Recovery Team (D.A.R.T) program – the first and only team of its kind in the world. Comprised of experienced nurses, paramedics, and elite military special forces, D.A.R.T has redefined cryonics readiness and response.
2024 – Alcor Forms In-House Research Team
In 2024, Alcor established its dedicated in-house Research & Development department – the first full-time professional cryopreservation research team within any cryonics organization worldwide. This multidisciplinary team pioneers solutions at the intersection of biology, engineering, and materials science.
2025 – Alcor Installs New CT Scanner for Patients
In 2025, Alcor installed an advanced GE LightSpeed RT 16 x-ray CT scanner in-house for comprehensive patient evaluation. This sophisticated imaging system verifies procedural outcomes, identifies structural details relevant to preservation quality, and generates crucial data that supports ongoing research advancement.
1,500+ Members, 230+ Patients
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