A Century of Great Lakes Research at the University of Michigan

Abstract

The University of Michigan has had a long and productive history of promoting, enhancing, and facilitating research on the Laurentian Great Lakes. This interest in Great Lakes research was evident before the turn of the century under the leadership of Prof. Jacob E. Reighard. Early research was primarily concerned with fish and fisheries. The emphasis on fisheries started to shift to basic limnological research after the 1920s when Prof. Paul S. Welch started a limnology course and wrote his book Limnology. His student, Prof. David C. Chandler, returned to the University in 1953 to chair the Council of the Great Lakes Research Institute, and subsequently became the Director of the Great Lakes Research Division in 1960. The emphasis was and has been on basic and applied research involving a broad spectrum of disciplines. The published contributions include biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology, paleolimnology, physical limnology, pollution, radiolimnology, and integrated studies. Among the University's many contributions to furthering Great Lakes research was the origination of the Conferences on Great Lakes Research, started in 1953. Publications of the Proceedings of these conferences provided a valuable reference to research in the 1950s and 1960s. These conferences led to the formation of the International Association for Great Lakes Research and subsequently the Journal of Great Lakes Research. The University acquired several research vessels. The earliest large vessel acquired was the Inland Seas (1960) which was replaced by the Laurentian in 1974. A research submersible was brought into Lake Michigan for evaluation by the Great Lakes Research Division in 1966. At about this time Michigan Sea Grant Program was started in 1969 and the Coastal Zone Laboratory in the 1970s. More recently the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystem Research was created in 1989 as a partnership among the University, Michigan State University, and the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Much of the Great Lakes research activity at the University was realigned into several colleges and schools in the late 1980s. Great Lakes research at the University has passed through a number of reorganizations, and now exists as the Aquatic Research Programs of the University of Michigan Biological Station.