The Grice Marine Laboratory is a core facility in support of the undergraduate and the graduate teaching programs in the marine sciences at the College of Charleston, and in support of research in marine sciences conducted by faculty members and students. The mission of the laboratory is to provide an environment that:

• Promotes the acquisition and the dissemination of knowledge about marine and coastal organisms, processes, and environments, and marine and coastal environmental concerns and issues.
• Supports the Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Marine Biology.
• Encourages collaborative interdisciplinary marine research among academic departments as well as with other institutions and marine research facilities, particularly those in the Fort Johnson community.
• Nurtures undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate learning through formal and informal courses, lecture series, symposia, independent and collaborative research, and post-doctoral appointments and internships.
• Fosters the intellectual development of marine scholars by providing diverse programs that strive for excellence in research and training.
• Fulfills an important role in marine science education and research in the Lowcountry.
• Supports existing and new marine-oriented programs, including interdisciplinary programs, as appropriate to the Laboratory.
• Maintains a collection of marine biological specimens, curated with disciplinary-standard techniques, for use by faculty and students in research and teaching.

The George D. Grice Marine Laboratory, named in honor of the 14th presidentof the College, is located at Fort Johnson, on James Island, across Charleston Harbor from downtown Charleston. The facility houses classrooms, student laboratories, research laboratories, faculty offices, an aquarium room, and a research collection of marine invertebrates and fishes. It has combined its extensive marine science library holdings with the holdings of the Marine Resources Research Institute of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources to form the Cooperative Marine Research Library at Fort Johnson.

The Fort Johnson property has historic associations dating back more than 200 years. Among the remains of fortifications dating from the Revolutionary War area brick powder magazine and, from a later period, the foundations of a Martello tower. The opening rounds of the bombardment on Fort Sumter that began the Civil War were fired from these fortifications.

Since 1955, The Grice Marine Laboratory (originally "The Fort Johnson Marine Biological Laboratory" and later the "Grice Marine Biological Laboratory") has served as the core facility in support of the undergraduate and the graduate programs in marine biology of the College of Charleston. As such, it provides essential academic programs, courses and associated laboratories, advising, and research training and participation for about 400 undergraduate majors and 55 graduate students. These programs lead to the Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Biology and to the Master of Science degree in Marine Biology, respectively. The laboratory provides office and research laboratory facilities and clerical, administrative and technical support for ten Department of Biology faculty integrally involved in the conduct and the administration of these programs. Laboratory and other facilities are provided by GML to graduate and undergraduate students involved in marine research. The undergraduate major in Marine Biology is supported through courses taught at GML, through an undergraduate summer research fellowship program, and through undergraduate research projects. Graduate students in the Marine Biology Graduate Program provide essential academic support to the Department of Biology through instruction in more than 50 sections of core freshman-level laboratory courses per annum. The Marine Biology Graduate Program, centered at the laboratory, is cooperative, and involves in excess of 90 faculty members from more than 15 departments at regional academic and research institutions. GML faculty work collaboratively with scientists at these institutions as well as with colleagues nationally and internationally. GML is an integral and equal player at the South Carolina Marine Resources Center at Fort Johnson, where it works cooperatively with the NOAA/NOS Laboratory, NIST, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the Marine Resources Research Institute of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the Medical University of South Carolina's Graduate Program in Marine Biomedicine and Environmental Sciences.

GML also supports the Environmental Studies Graduate Program and other programs in the marine sciences at the College of Charleston through two primary means: (1) provision of training to students through marine biology courses, graduate and undergraduate, at GML; and (2) interpersonal interactions between individual members of the GML faculty and other faculty and scholars at the College of Charleston and elsewhere in South Carolina.

In the Fall of 1997, the name of the laboratory was changed to the Grice Marine Laboratory to reflect a broadening of its mission at the College of Charleston. The mission was increased to include all aspects of the marine sciences.

The Grice Marine Laboratory supports academic programs in the followingareas:

• B.S. in Marine Biology
• M.S. in Marine Biology
• M.S. in Environmental Studies

Anderson,William D., Jr. - (Emeritus Professor) Systematics and ecology of fishes

Biernbaum, Charles K. - (Emeritus Professor) Ecology of amphipod crustaceans, benthic ecology

Burnett, Karen G. - Comparative immunology and disease resistance in marine organisms; molecular pathways of recognition and response to environmental stress

Burnett, Louis E. - Environmental physiology, respiration and transport processes in animals; influence of environmental variables on disease resistance in marine organisms

DiTullio, Giacomo R. - Phytoplankton physiology and ecology, biogeochemical cycling; how marine microorganisms can influence the biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur

Dustan, Phillip - Ecology of estuarine fronts and the distribution of primary productivity in river, estuarine and coastal waters; remote sensing and photoecology of coral reefs and phytoplankton in communities; ecology and vitality of Caribbean reef-building corals

Harold, Antony S. - Evolutionary processes, phylogenetic analysis, and biogeography of fishes

Lazzaro, Mark - Cell biology: cytoskeletal function in pollen tube development; structure and function of plant secretory hairs including salt glands of marine plants; digital and fluorescent microscopy

Owens, David W. - Physiology, behavior and ecology of marine vertebrates with special interest in the reproductive biology of marine turtles

Plante, Craig - Benthic ecology, animal-microbe interactions on biogeochemical processes, microbial ecology, evolution of invertebrate-microbe associations

Sancho, Gorka - Behavior and ecology of fishes; fisheries conservation

Podolsky, Robert - Functional biology and evolutionary ecology of marine invertebrates, larval ecology and life-history evolution, fertilization ecology, physiological ecology, phenotypic plasticity

Sotka, Erik - Ecology and evolution of marine biotic interactions, larval dispersal, molecular ecology, chemical ecology

Strand, Allan E. - Demography and population genetics of Aquilegia; GIS analyses of habitat suitability in the desert Southwest

The Grice Marine Laboratory is located at the South Carolina Marine Resources Center at Fort Johnson on James Island, South Carolina. Fort Johnson is directly across Charleston Harbor from the city of Charleston.