Abstract:
Marine and coastal sciences represent a major strength of Oregon State University.
Through a combination of research, education, and outreach, OSU scientists improve the
understanding of our marine and coastal environments and make major contributions to
issues facing society, including climate change, natural resource conservation and
development, and fundamental ocean literacy. Research in marine and coastal programs
account for over 40% of the extramural funds brought into the University. As OSU’s
“portal to the Pacific,” the HMSC serves a very important function in research, education
and outreach, and has fostered partnerships with government agencies and marine
industries such as fisheries; it also plays an important role in economic development on
the Oregon coast.
In the past several decades, ample space allowed growth of OSU’s diverse marine
programs at HMSC. Since the late 1960s, however, the only new university-owned
facilities at the HMSC have been the Guin Library, vessel support, student housing, a
small wetlab, and storage space. Available research space to accommodate our science
programs now places constraints upon program growth and research funding. While
several programs are growing, OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute has planned an
ambitious program scientific accomplishment over the next decade. Two new faculty
added in the past year, however, have brought HMSC near the limit of available scientific
space. As part of our master planning process at the HSMC, we propose a new building,
described in this report, to accommodate the growth of our research enterprise anticipated
over the next 5 years.
