Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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Image:Whale sculpture at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.JPG The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (sometimes referred to as SIO or just Scripps) in La Jolla, California is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for marine science research, graduate training, and public service in the world. The staff of 1,300 conducts oceanographic research with the aid of oceanographic research vessels and short based laboratories. The public face of the Institute is the Birch Aquarium.
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Research programs
Image:ScrippsPier.jpg The institution's research programs encompass biological, physical, chemical, geological, and geophysical studies of the oceans. Scripps also studies the interaction of the oceans with both the atmospheric climate and environmental concerns on terra firma. Related to this research, Scripps offers doctoral degrees in Oceanography, Marine Biology, and Earth Sciences.
Today, the Scripps staff of 1,300 includes approximately 90 faculty, 300 other scientists and 200 graduate students, with an annual budget of more than $140 million. The institution operates a fleet of four oceanographic research vessels and has served as manager of the Deep Sea Drilling Program.
The Scripps Institution is widely considered to be the West Coast counterpart of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. However, the analogy is not exact: Scripps is a division of University of California, San Diego, while Woods Hole is an independent non-profit group that collaborates with MIT.
History
Scripps Institution was founded in 1903 as the "George H. Scripps Memorial Marine Biological Laboratory," an independent biological research laboratory by University of California Zoology professor William E. Ritter, with support from Ellen Browning Scripps and later her brother E. W. Scripps. They fully funded Scripps for the first several years.
In 1912 Scripps became part of the University of California and renamed the "Scripps Institution for Biological Research". During the 1960s, led by SIO director Roger Revelle, it formed the nucleus for the creation of UCSD on a bluff overlooking the Scripps Institution.
Research vessels
Image:Submersible named Star III in front of Scripps Institution of Oceanography.JPG The research vessels and platforms currently operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography are:
- R/P FLIP
- R/V Roger Revelle (AGOR-24)
- R/V Melville (AGOR-14)
- R/V New Horizon
- R/V Robert Gordon Sproul