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Ocean Science Center
Catalyzing change and action by advancing and sharing knowledge of the ocean
NMNH has a unique set of ocean-related scientific and educational assets that can catalyze change and action by advancing knowledge of the ocean and sharing it with the scientific community, policymakers, and the general public.
NMNH research scientists and educators together can motivate the general public to understand the importance of a diverse ocean to their everyday lives and livelihoods. The NMNH built a major exhibition on the National Mall – the Sant Ocean Hall – that, together with our Ocean Portal education website, engages millions of visitors each year. The Museum’s world-class scientists conducting fundamental and applied research are distributed across all Museum departments, field stations (Fort Pierce, Florida; Carrie Bow Cay, Belize; Arctic Studies Center, Alaska), and lab facilities, and have access to a broad network of other Smithsonian research facilities (e.g., Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute).
Our work covers the breadth of natural-science disciplines, including biodiversity, systematics and evolution, conservation, human impacts, global change, chemical and historical ecology, marine paleobiology, marine geology and geobiology, maritime archaeology, ethnology and biological anthropology. This work is anchored in our superb and constantly expanding marine collections, unparalleled in breadth and depth, containing more than 35 million objects.