For nearly a century, Scripps Institution of Oceanography has conducted a continuous search throughout the global ocean and in the laboratory for knowledge about the marine environment.A department of the University of California, San Diego, Scripps is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for marine science research and graduate training in the world.

An independent biological research laboratory when it was founded in 1903, Scripps became a part of the University of California in 1912, and was named in recognition of the support of E.W. Scripps and his sister Ellen Browning Scripps.

The scientific scope of the institution has grown to include physical, chemical, geological, climate, and geophysical studies of the ocean, as well as biological research. More than 300 research programs are under way today in a wide range of scientific areas, including studies of global warming and long-term climate change, the marine food chain, earthquake studies, pharmaceuticals from the sea, and coastal ocean processes. Scripps maintains a staff of about 1,200, and the annual budget is approximately $100 million, from federal, state, and private resources.