The Gatty Marine Laboratory is a science facility located in the coastal town of St Andrews in Fife,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It is part of the

University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

and home to the Scottish Oceans Institute, an interdisciplinary research institute studying the marine environment, specifically the behaviour,

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

population biology The term population biology has been used with different meanings. In 1971 Edward O. Wilson ''et al''. used the term in the sense of applying mathematical models to population genetics, community ecology, and population dynamics. Alan Hastings ...

and

functional genomics Functional genomics is a field of molecular biology that attempts to describe gene (and protein) functions and interactions. Functional genomics make use of the vast data generated by genomic and transcriptomic projects (such as genome sequencing ...

of marine organisms. The Gatty Marine Laboratory is known as the place where Richard G. Morris developed the

Morris water navigation task The Morris water navigation task, also known as the Morris water maze (not to be confused with '' water maze''), is a behavioral procedure mostly used with rodents. It is widely used in behavioral neuroscience to study spatial learning and me ...

in the early 1980s.

History

The laboratory was paid for by the zoologist Charles Henry Gatty FRS FRSE FLS FGS (1836-1903) during his later life (1892), having no family to leave his fortune to. He paid both for an original timber building (1892)and its permanent stone replacement (1896), which was designed by James Gillespie. Its first Director was William Carmichael McIntosh FRSE. The permanent building was officially opened on 3 October 1896 by Lord Reay, at which point the timber building was abandoned. The building was badly damaged by fire in 1913. The Gatty Marine Laboratory has been continuously occupied except for the period between 1931 and the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The laboratory has its origins in the government-funded St Andrews Fisheries Laboratory, which was founded in 1884. The first director, Professor William Carmichael McIntosh FRS, conducted pioneering work on the

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

annelids The annelids (Annelida , from Latin ', "little ring"), also known as the segmented worms, are a large phylum, with over 22,000 extant species including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to various ecolog ...

and the early life histories of marine fish over more than 50 years. In 1945-46 the Gatty (as it is informally known) received an operating budget of £50 and was used as a field station by zoologists and botanists based in the Bute Medical Building in the town centre. Until 1960 the Gatty was led by Dr James Munro Dodd. From 1960 till 1969 the laboratory was under the Directorship of Dr Adrian Horridge, succeeded from 1969 to 1985 by Prof Michael Laverack. Since 1987, the "Gatty" has been a component Research Institute of the School of Biology (although the name and composition of the school has changed several times). The laboratory built up strong research groupings in fish biology and marine ecology and by the early 1990s received the highest number of research grants in marine biology of any UK department. In 1997, a major £4.3 million extension to the building was financed by the University Court. The new building provided a modern lecture theatre and teaching laboratory, and research laboratories for immunological and muscle research. The major part of the new build was occupied by the

Natural Environment Research Council The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a British research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences. History NERC began in 1965 when several environmental (mainly geog ...

(NERC) sponsored Sea Mammal Research Unit, which transferred to the site from Cambridge in 1996. History of the Gatty Marine Laboratory

References

External links

Research School of Biology, University of St Andrews

Sea Mammal Research Unit Homepage

University of St Andrews

Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
{{authority control Biological research institutes in the United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council Oceanographic organizations University of St Andrews Science and technology in Scotland Scientific organisations based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Fife 1884 establishments in Scotland