History of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)

Summary

This five-article series is a history of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). SERC originated in 1965 as the Chesapeake Bay Center for Field Biology at a site that had been bequeathed earlier to the Smithsonian Institution. Departing Secretary Leonard Carmichael had considered selling the property in 1964, but incoming Secretary S. Dillon Ripley urged formation of a committee to evaluate potential uses by the Smithsonian. Various suggestions were offered, but a decision was made to keep the area, which had a wide variety of habitats suitable for terrestrial, wetland and estuarine field biology, as a site for field collecting trips by scientists from universities and government agencies, as well as the Smithsonian.
Dr. Francis Williamson was SERC's director from 1968 until 1976 and led initiatives in three areas: facilities development and land acquisition/protection, research program and staff development, and educational programs, including a very successful Work/Learn internship program. Growth in the Center's research program and its staff dominated the latter part of the 1970's; following some organizational turmoil in the early 1980's, SERC shifted its focus to public education programs while still conducting unique research on how humans affect coastal ecosystems.

A series of five articles published in separate Newsletter editions comprise this SERC history. The author became SERC Director in 1985.

On the Rhode Vol. 1, Nos. 1 & 2; Vol. 2, Nos. 1, 2/3 & 4 (Newsletter)

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Summer 1991; Fall 1991; Winter 1992; Spring/Summer 1992; Fall/Winter 1992/93

pgs. 1 & 12; pgs. 1 & 7; pgs. 1 & 10-11; pgs. 1 & 10; pgs. 1 & 5