Anson "Tuck" Hines, SERC director emeritus

The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center is turning 60 this year.

It began as a surprise bequest, when entrepreneur Robert Lee Forrest willed his abandoned dairy farm on Maryland’s Rhode River to the Smithsonian. Over the last six decades, the center has transformed into a cutting-edge research campus that attracts experts from all over the world.

I’ve witnessed this transformation personally. I’ve worked at SERC since 1979, first as a marine ecologist with grant funding for fish, crabs and other critters of the Bay and beyond, and then as assistant director in 1988. For the last 20 years, I served as the center’s director. We have grown SERC research from five principal investigators to 21. We’ve also expanded our public programs to engage hundreds of volunteers and students and over 15,000 visitors annually.

The last decade has seen especially remarkable transformations, which you can read about in our 60th anniversary report. Our educators have found new ways to engage schools and communities, meeting people where they are and giving them a larger voice in our research. Our scientists have uncovered some surprising realities, thanks to new technologies and tools. And hundreds of volunteers have devoted thousands of hours helping our research and programs succeed.

I’m also incredibly gratified at how our campus has transformed over the past 10 years. In 2014, SERC finished building the Charles McC. Mathias Lab. It was a landmark for green building at the time—the Smithsonian’s first LEED-Platinum building. Since then, we’ve added six more LEED-Platinum buildings, with rooftop solar panels that send roughly half their renewable energy back into the grid. We also renovated the historic 1735 house on our campus. Today, the Woodlawn History Center tells the stories of the Native Americans, enslaved families and free families who preceded us and shaped the land into what it is today.

This is my last letter as director. A new leader will guide SERC into its seventh decade. While the projects and strategies may change, SERC’s core mission will remain the same: to advance the science that protects the Earth and its people.

-Anson “Tuck” Hines, SERC director emeritus