In 2009, $6.9 million was made available in the State University of New York (SUNY) capital budget for the construction of a new, state-of-the-art marine science laboratory at the site of the current Marine Station on the waterfront at Stony Brook Southampton. The present facilities are not adequate to support the explosive growth of SoMAS’s undergraduate marine science and environmental science
programs, which now enroll more than 500 students. Moreover, new facilities are needed to support cutting edge marine research of regional and national significance. On the drawing board is a 12,000 ft2 facility providing space for expanded wet lab facilities, for aquaculture research, labs dedicated to use by undergraduates, a marine instrumentation lab, offices and a space for public education and outreach. The lab will feature a modern, computer-operated running seawater system, analytical labs and equipment for use in research and teaching. The new building will replace several of the older buildings on the site of the present Marine Station. The expanded Marine Station will become the hub for waterfront recreation including diving and sailing programs as well as expanded programs for K-12 school groups, summer marine science camps, public lectures and education cruises on Shinnecock Bay.The marine laboratory will be LEEDS-certified.
Construction of the new laboratory at the Marine Station began in May of 2012. The building opened on September 27th, 2013, with a grand opening celebration where “President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., MD, Provost and Sr. Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dennis N. Assanis, Sr. Vice President for Administration Barbara Chernow, and SoMAS Dean Minghua Zhang were joined by New York State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle, Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele, Jr., Stony Brook Council Chair Kevin Law to cut the ribbon and take a guided tour the new research and teaching facility.”
Stony Brook University’s new Marine Sciences Center will be the hub of educational, research, and outreach activities for the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at the Stony Brook Southampton campus. The 15,000-square foot building will facilitate the growth of research programs related to Long Island’s bays and estuaries and will enable SoMAS to expand its academic offering to students at Stony Brook and around the world who enroll in their new ‘Semester by the Sea’ program. The facility features a computerized, state-of the-art 2,500-square-foot indoor seawater lab, which can recreate and maintain the seawater of any marine ecosystem on the planet. It will also serve as a hub for public meetings, summer camps, diving and sailing programs and allow for expanded K-12 outreach programs.
A slide show of construction images is also available.
The previous three-laboratory facility was completed in early 1986 to complement the existing structures. These laboratories housed standard equipment including an autoanalyser, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, salinometer, fluorimeter, osmometer, and Coulter Counter. Faculty utilized these facilities for their research, and students were encouraged to utilize these facilities and instruments during their course work and while undertaking independent studies.
