performs many more services In accordance with its mandate to increase 

 and diffuse knowledge. 



Its National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) administers the 

 Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center (SOSC) established in 1963 

 as a national facility for the acquisition and use of marine biolog- 

 ical collections. It also sponsored the Pacific Ocean Biological 

 Survey Program (POBSP) conducted in 1963, and the Investigations of 

 Marine Shallow-Water Ecosystems Program (IMSWEP), a physical/chemical/ 

 biological study of a coral reef adjacent to Belize, Central America, 

 in 1971. IMSWEP was partially coordinated with the program called 

 Cooperative Investigations of Tropical Reef Ecosystems (CURE) pro- 

 posed by SI to be incorporated into the International Decade of Ocean 

 Exploration (IDOE). While CITRE was not accepted for inclusion in 

 IDOE, SI did some work on site selections and held related workshops. 



Si's Chesapeake Bay Center for Environmental Studies (CBCES) makes 

 studies of estuarine processes and promotes educational programs. 

 The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), in the Republic 

 of Panama, is devoted to the study of tropical biology, conservation, 

 and education and operates two marine biology laboratories, one on 

 the Atlantic side and the other on the Pacific side of the Isthmus. 



The Smithsonian Science Information Exchange (SSIE), a nonprofit 

 District of Columbia Corporation, collects, indexes, stores, and 

 retrieves information on Government and nongovernment research 

 projects and provides a number of services to help researchers keep 

 informed about current efforts in their fields of interest. Late 

 in 1978 an agreement was made to transfer SSIE to the Department of 

 Commerce, where it will become part of the National Technical Infor- 

 mation Service (NTIS). 



SI operates the Scientific Event Alert Network (SEAN), formerly 

 the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena (CSLP) and maintains a file of 

 events, many of which occur in the marine environment. SI cooperates 

 with the U.N. Environment Program's (UNEP) Informational Retrieval 

 System (IRS), recently redesignated INFOTERRA. A new commission 

 established in 1978, the U.S. Commission of Maritime History (USCMH), 

 was placed under the direction of SI. 



Quasi-official Agencies 



419. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE-NATIONAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING- 

 NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL: NAS-NAE-NRC 



A National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was established as a quasi- 

 official agency in 1863 to further science and its use for the general 

 welfare. The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) was established 

 by the Council of NAS in 1970 to further engineering research in 

 support of national needs. Both are honorary bodies, but can, by 

 terms of the charter, be called upon to act as official advisers to 

 the Federal Government in matters coming under their purview. 



The National Research Council (NRC) was organized by NAS in 1916 

 and serves as the principal operating agency of NAS and NAE. It 

 comprises a number of boards and committees. Those associated with 

 NAS include the Ocean Sciences Board (NAS/OSB); the Transportation 

 Research Board (NAS/TRB); the Environmental Studies Board (NAS/ESB); 

 and the Geophysical Research Board (NAS/GRB). 



The Ocean Sciences Board (NAS/OSB) was created in 1976 through a 

 reorganization of the former Ocean Affairs Board (NAS/OAB), which had 

 included an Ocean Science Committee (OSC), successor to the National 

 Scientific Committee on Oceanography (NASCO), successor in turn to the 

 NAS Committee on Oceanography (NAS/CO). NAS/OSB includes an Ocean 



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