The program was developed in the late 1970s by Don C. McGilvery at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia as part of his Ph.D. research working with James Morrison, and was later adapted for personal computers in 1985 by David A. Dahl at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. With Richard Morrison at Monash University, McGilvery developed a Macintosh version of SIMION, known as MacSIMION. In recognition of the importance of their work, McGilvery and Dahl shared the Distinguished Contribution Award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry in 1998.