Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 26 Nov 2007
The Central Laboratory of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and Its Successors
The Central Laboratory of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and Its Successors
Page Range: 225 – 246
The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) was established in 1902 for the coordination of studies of the Northern Seas. The first intergovernmental marine science organization, ICES played a leading role in marine research for many years. Essential for its work was standardization of the methods and instruments used in the research. Critical for this aim was the establishment of a central laboratory to ensure uniformity of the methods used in hydrography1 and marine biological research. Director of the laboratory, set up in Christiania (Oslo) in 1902, was the Norwegian marine scientist and polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930). During the few years (1902-1908) that the laboratory existed Nansen and his two scientific assistants, Vagn Walfrid Ekman (1874-1954) and Charles J. J. Fox, made pioneering work. When the laboratory was dissolved a few of its functions were assigned to the hydrographical assistant at the ICES office in Copenhagen, Martin Knudsen (1871-1949), who later on developed his own international laboratory. In his several capacities, Knudsen and his laboratory exerted great influence upon the development of marine research.
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