Lynn Lauerman
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Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is one of the world's preeminent global science research centers.  Its main campus, located along the beach in La Jolla, California, is supported by research facilities in Mount Soledad and marine facilities in Point Loma. SIO operates four research vessels (Melville, New Horizon, Robert Gordon Sproul, Roger Revelle) and one research platform (FLIP) that allow SIO researchers and scientists from other institutions to do extensive oceanographic field research.

The scope of scientific research at SIO is extremely broad and encompasses biological, chemical, geological, geophysical, and physical aspects of the earth-ocean-atmosphere system.  Researchers, graduate students, and staff participate in over 300 research programs that involve every continent and every ocean.   Research topics include climate change, El Nino, ocean circulation, coastal processes, plate tectonics, seismology, marine biology and ecology, and the development of marine pharmaceuticals.  Many projects are interdisciplinary and collaborations with scientists from all over the world are common.

In addition to its role as a renowned center for research, SIO teaches and trains graduate students. As a graduate department of the University of California San Diego, SIO offers doctoral degrees in Marine Biology, Oceanography, and Earth Sciences.  Graduate students at SIO work towards their Ph. D. in one of eight curricular groups (Applied Ocean Sciences, Biological Oceanography, Climate Sciences, Geological Sciences, Geophysics, Marine Biology, Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry, Physical Oceanography

SIO was America's first oceanographic institution.  It was founded in 1903 when William E. Ritter, a University of California professor, and colleagues established the Marine Biological Association of San Diego. In 1912, the Association became part of the University of California and was renamed the Scripps Institution for Biological Research to honor benefactors Ellen Browning Scripps and E.W. Scripps.  The institution's name was changed to Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1925 to reflect its broader research goals.  SIO became a department within the University of California San Diego in 1956.

Ritter and eight succeeding directors (Thomas Wayland Vaughan, Harald Sverdrup, Carl Eckart, Roger Revelle, Fred Spiess, William Nierenberg, Edward Frieman, and Charles Kennel) built SIO into a world-renowned scientific institution.  Each director contributed his specific strengths and expertise to add a new dimension to the institution.  They transformed SIO from a marine station to a world class oceanographic institution, broadened the scope of research from studies in the Pacific to studies throughout the world, delved into new fields of study, built a fleet of research vessels, developed a rigorous graduate curriculum, and increased the institution's budget.  Under their leadership, SIO has sponsored and/or participated in many large interdisciplinary projects, such as the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigation (CalCOFI) to study fisheries biology; the International Deep Sea Drilling Project, which provided data in support of the theory of plate tectonics; the North Pacific Experiment (NORPAX), which studied the effects of the air-ocean interface on climate change; and a long-term program to monitor atmospheric carbon dioxide and to study global warming.  In addition to SIO's directors, many notable scientists have influenced the evolution and study of oceanography while at SIO; these researchers include, among many others, Harmon Craig, Carl Hubbs, John Isaacs, Charles Keeling, Walter Munk, and John Strickland.


Further Reading

Raitt, Helen. Scripps Institution of Oceanography: First Fifty Years. Los Angeles: W. Ritchie Press, 1967.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography (text written by Chuck Colgan, SIO Public Information Office). 1903-1983, Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Eighty Years of Research, Teaching, and Public Service in the Marine Sciences.  La Jolla, California: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 1984.

Sargent, Peter. The Sea Acorn: Scripps Institution of Oceanography: The People and the Place, 1936-1942. With prologue and epilogue by Peter Sargent. San Diego: Sargent, c1979.  

"Scripps Institution of Oceanography"
http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/.