SMS: VIMS Facilities & Service Centers

William J. Hargis, Jr. Library: The diverse collections of the Hargis Library, located in Watermens Hall, support the major programs of studies of the School of Marine Science as well as the research and advisory service programs of VIMS. These specialized collections are a blend of books, technical reports, online and print based journals as well as topographic maps and nautical charts. Many of the VIMS scientific reports have been digitized and are available for viewing by connecting to the library’s website.

Current research literature can be identified by using the major scientific research databases such as the Web of Science, Science Direct, ASFA, CSA Biological Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management, GeoRef, and Oceanic Abstracts. These and other electronic resources are accessible both on and off campus. Students, faculty and staff can also connect to the broad array of over 200 databases available via main campus connections and VIVA - the Virtual Library of Virginia, as well as the materials in the collections of the other William & Mary libraries. In addition to the collections at William & Mary, research materials from other institutions can be acquired for your use via Hargis Library’s InterLibrary Loan Service.

Librarians are able to provide help in locating information, identifying the best tools for your research project and clarifying how to access resources. More information on Hargis Library can be viewed at https://www.vims.edu/library/.

Acuff Center for Aquaculture: Completed in 2022, the Acuff Center for Aquaculture is a 22,000-square-foot shellfish hatchery facility that supports collaborative research, education, and advisory teams within VIMS’ Shellfish Aquaculture Program. The building has an expansive open floorplan allowing flexibility to meet the changing research and husbandry needs of many users, including the Aquaculture Genetics and Breeding Technology Center (ABC), a variety of other VIMS researchers, and those who are a part of the VIMS Shellfish Aquaculture Science Initiative (SALT-SI). The facility honors the exceptional leadership and generosity of A. Marshall Acuff, Jr. ‘62, L.H.D. ‘07, P ‘93 on VIMS’ behalf, and is named for the Acuff family.

Analytical Service Center (ASC): The ASC provides water and sediment analyses to students, scientists and governmental agencies. The ASC has researched, refined and developed methodologies for analyses in a wide spectrum of environmental matrices. The quality of data is the result of thorough statistical controls, documentation, and training. ASC instrumentation is state-of-the-art, with computer control interfacing, background correction and optimization for saline samples.

Andrews Hall (AH): This 71,000 square foot facility, which was completed in 2007, houses programs in marine ecology and biological oceanography, geological and physical oceanography, fisheries and aquaculture. The facility includes class and meeting rooms for the academic program, which can also be used for distance learning and videoconferencing.

Chesapeake Bay Hall (CBH): Completed in 1997, this facility provides 60,000 square feet of research facilities, including labs for advanced research in chemistry, biogeochemistry, toxicology, pathobiology, microbiology, genetics, physiology, plankton ecology, nutrient cycling and parasitology.

Davis Hall (DH): Completed in 2018, this 32,000 square foot facility is the first LEED-certified building on the Gloucester Point campus. Davis Hall is named after VIMS’ Founding Father, W&M Biology Professor Donald W. Davis. The building houses the Center for Coastal Resources Management, Virginia Sea Grant, Information Technology & Networking Services, Marine Advisory Services and News & Media Services.

Eastern Shore Field Laboratory (ESL): The VIMS ESL facility, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, offers access to coastal lagoons, salt marshes, barrier islands and coastal waters. Located in Wachapreague, about 2 hours from Gloucester Point, this facility supports research on a wide variety of coastal issues with special emphasis on bivalve aquaculture. The ESL houses a hatchery, nursery, seawater flume, nearby bivalve grow-out sites and has a well-equipped laboratory, small boat facility, and dormitory.

Field Support Center: Completed in 2010, this 10,000-square foot, 3-story facility provides space for a broad range of technical services and vessel maintenance. The technicians, machinists, welders, fabricators, and mechanics on staff can design, fabricate, and repair complex electronic and mechanical instruments and tools. Personnel also assist in designing field programs, operating vessels, and conducting field work either locally or away. They support the diving program, which complies with AAUS standards. In addition to the 93-ft R/V Virginia, 65-ft R/V Bay Eagle, the 29-ft R/V Fish Hawk, and the 29-ft R/V Ellis Olsson, a sizeable fleet of smaller boats can be hauled by trailers. On request, Field Support Center personnel provide training to qualify students to operate boats.

Information Technology and Network Services (ITNS): ITNS provides technical support for Information Technology resources used on campus. Supported desktop and laptop systems are primarily Windows and Macintosh. ITNS maintains a campus-wide backbone network, which has high-speed links to the Internet and NLR, the National Research Network, via Network Virginia. ITNS provides a wide variety of IT services such as file, print, E-mail, web, database, data storage, high performance computing, and video conferencing. Students have access to up-to-date hardware and software in computing labs, the library and via mobile laptop systems that can be used in any classroom. ITNS staff assist students in configuring and using personally owned computer systems that meet or exceed minimum requirements.

Nunnally Hall: Completed in 1992, Nunnally Hall houses modern laboratories, dissection facilities for large vertebrates, and an extensive collection of fishes that includes approximately 128,000 specimens representing approximately 245 families of marine and freshwater fishes.

Seawater Research Laboratory (SRL): This 47,000 square foot facility allows scientists from VIMS and other institutions to conduct research on living marine and estuarine organisms under controlled conditions, allowing for great diversity with respect to the type(s) of organisms which may be studied and the conditions of exposure. The SRL consists of six primary contained wet lab areas, including some that are highly specialized to allow the safe containment and treatment of aquatic pathogens and toxins. Special care is taken to protect the laboratory personnel who work within these areas. State-of-the-art filtration and effluent treatment technologies are utilized to protect the receiving waters of the York River estuary from exposure to these compounds as well.

Watermen’s Hall: Opened in 1984, this 40,000 square-foot building houses our Visitors Center, Reception Desk, McHugh Auditorium, and many of our administrative offices. It also houses the William J. Hargis Jr. Library, with more than 80,000 volumes and electronic access to marine literature worldwide. The administrative offices headquartered in Watermen’s Hall are Advancement, Dean & Director, Academic Studies, Finance, Research & Advisory Services, and Sponsored Programs.

Research Facilities and Equipment by Department

Department of Biological Sciences

http://www.vims.edu/research/departments/bio/

The Department of Biological Sciences, housed primarily in Chesapeake Bay and Andrews Halls, is well equipped with state-of-the-art equipment for conducting field and laboratory research. Major facilities include several light-, temperature- and humidity- controlled environmental chambers, a greenhouse with running seawater and temperature controlled tanks for aquatic macrophyte photosynthesis-related studies and plant restoration work, an expansive wet laboratory facility, and a large array of flow-through seawater mesocosm tanks. Laboratory instrumentation includes: gas chromatograph fitted with various detectors, high performance liquid chromatograph, infrared gas analyzer, elemental analyzer, scintillation counter, auto-analyzer for nutrient analyses, computer-assisted image analysis hardware and software, biosafety hoods, fluorometers, spectrophotometers, various microscopes including access to electron microscope facilities, a Coulter Altra flow cytometer, a FLOWCAM imaging cytometer, Total Organic Carbon and Total Nitrogen analyzer, Elzone particle counter/sizer, and microelectrode microprofiler.

The department maintains an excellent assortment of field sampling gear. Bottom samplers include an assortment of box corers, grab samplers, and piston-type corers. Sediment-profile and surface cameras as well as a bottom sled with profiling plow, video, and still photography capabilities allow rapid bottom mapping. A variety of nets are available for plankton sampling. A Fetch-class Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (equipped with CTD, 600 kHz sidescan sonar, underwater video, fluorometer/turbidity sensor, and fast response dissolved oxygen sensor), a vertical profiler and towed sensor packages including a towed undulating vehicle along with a variety of data sondes, fluorometers and dissolved oxygen sensors allow continuous, under-way and fixed station monitoring of water quality. The department also has access to state-of-the-art facilities for molecular genetic analyses, including automated DNA sequencers and environmental chemistry laboratory facilities.

The Department of Biological Sciences maintains close contacts and shares instrumentation with the other departments at VIMS. Also available are computer facilities with support of both Windows and Macintosh platforms ranging from in-lab laptop units, to work stations supporting LANs, to an institute-wide network.

The present facilities and equipment available in the department are described in more detail on the department website.

Department of Aquatic Health Sciences

http://www.vims.edu/research/departments/eaah/

Laboratories of the Department of Environmental and Aquatic Animal Health are located in Chesapeake Bay Hall and Andrews Hall. The laboratories in Chesapeake Bay Hall are equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation for studies on environmental chemistry, toxicology, immunology, electron microscopy, pathobiology, and microbiology.

Analytical instrumentation is available to identify and quantify a wide range of organic and inorganic contaminants in water, sediment and biota. This allows faculty and students to develop new analytical methodologies, detect emerging contaminants and track pollutants in the environment at trace levels. For example, an atomic absorption spectrophotometer is available for measuring heavy metals at low ambient concentrations. Gas chromatographs, high performance liquid chromatographs, mass spectrometers and enhanced solvent extractors are maintained for the determination of organic pollutants.

Genetic and molecular analyses of pathogenic organisms are performed using DNA sequencers, PCR thermal cyclers, a real-time PCR system and associated electrophoretic and imaging equipment. State-of-the-art electron microscopes allow identification of microorganisms (e.g., harmful algae) and ultrastructural analysis of diseased organisms, supplementing traditional light microscopy.

Instrumentation is available for sophisticated research on enzyme systems that play a role in detoxification of chemicals and lipids that are involved in accumulation of hydrophobic chemicals and in resistance to some disease organisms. The immunology laboratory has the capability to produce monoclonal antibodies for a variety of antigens.

A 43,000 square foot Seawater Research Laboratory (SRL) provides opportunities for toxicant and pathogen challenge studies and includes a Level 3 biosafety facility. The facility has flowing seawater, several configurations for aquaria, heated and chilled lines for temperature control and separate laboratories for quarantines.

The present facilities and equipment available in the department are described in more detail on the department website.

Department of Fisheries Science

http://www.vims.edu/research/departments/fisheries/

The Department of Fisheries Science, housed in Nunnally Hall, Chesapeake Bay Hall and Andrews Hall, comprises several programs, each with a fully equipped laboratory, a variety of collection and sampling equipment, and extensive computer facilities.

The Fisheries Science Laboratory has a dedicated age and growth laboratory equipped with multiple high quality optical microscopes linked to an image analysis system. The facility supports rapid analysis of hard structures for age determination and automated morphometric measurements. Also available are otolith sectioning and grinding equipment, hydraulic scale presses, and digital scale projectors. The fish-processing laboratory is a large, multi-user facility designed for the work-up of field samples and storage of field equipment. The lab is equipped with automated fish measuring boards and electronic balances that are linked to the departmental computer network.

The Marine Conservation Biology and Crustacean Ecology Programs maintain several mesocosm tanks suitable for a range of small (crabs) to large (sea turtles) marine species, as well as a Remotely Operated Underwater vehicle equipped with color video, B&W high-resolution camera, integrated navigation and GPS, laser scaling, side-scan sonar and 150-m depth capability. The Programs also maintain various types of benthic and epibenthic sample gears suitable for small and large research vessels.

The Molluscan Ecology Program’s laboratory is well equipped for physiological and ecological studies with a UV-VIS spectrophotometer, centrifuges, a fluorescence microscope, compound and dissecting microscopes, and an image analysis system. The Fisheries Genetics Program maintains a large laboratory that is fully equipped to undertake a variety of genetic analyses. Major equipment includes automated DNA sequencers, a bank of thermal cyclers, refrigerated centrifuges, ultracentrifuges, a vacuum concentrator, a digital imaging system, several ultra cold freezers and a walk-in cold room.

The Fisheries Ecosystem Modeling and Assessment Program maintains a laboratory with a full complement of the equipment needed for finfish diet and analysis and age determination, including several compound and dissecting microscopes, balances, low-speed isomet saws, and hot plates.

Nunnally Hall contains a collection of fishes with approximately 128,000 specimens representing 245 families. This research and teaching collection incorporates extensive holdings from Chesapeake Bay, the Middle Atlantic Bight, Appalachian freshwater habitats, and an internationally recognized collection of deep-sea fishes. Associated with the collection are laboratories equipped with high-resolution microscopic imaging and digital x-ray systems.

Two wet lab facilities are available to department faculty and students. The general wet lab contains a flow-through system with several wet tables and tanks. In addition, a special greenhouse/wet lab houses the large sea turtle holding tanks, which are supplied with re-circulated filtered seawater. Adjacent to the sea turtle greenhouse is a 7,560-gallon tank used for research.

Physiology laboratories are available on the VIMS main campus and at the Eastern Shore Laboratory containing equipment for measuring metabolic rates, as well as conducting a broad range of advanced procedures relevant to environmental physiology, including cardio-respiratory physiology and sensory biology.

Monthly surveys of juvenile fishes and crabs are conducted throughout the Bay and on three major rivers. Plankton studies, larval fish research, and reproductive studies of recreational fishes are conducted in the Bay as well as offshore.

The present facilities and equipment available in the department are described in more detail on the departmental website.

Department of Physical Sciences

http://www.vims.edu/research/departments/physical/

The Department of Physical Sciences, housed primarily in Andrews Hall, maintains state-of-the-art equipment for conducting high-quality field and laboratory research. Major field equipment includes: Laser In-Situ Scattering and Transmissiometry (LISST); sea-bed hydraulic flume; and bottom boundary layer instrumental tetrapod systems for measuring bed stress, wave and currents, sediment resuspension, and bed-level changes. A variety of instrumentation including tide gauges, current meters, conductivity- temperature-depth (CTD) profilers, fluorometers, dissolved oxygen (DO) meters, fathometers, dual-frequency side-scan sonars, variable frequency seismic profiling systems, directional wave gauges, turbidity sensors, acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP), and Kasten and box corers are available for field studies. The department maintains microwave and GPS navigation systems for accurate positioning of research vessels.

The department houses extensive laboratory instrumentation, including: an isotope ratio mass spectrometer coupled to an elemental analyzer; an elemental analyzer; UV/Vis spectrophotometer; gas chromatographs with flame ionization and electron capture detectors; quadrupole mass spectrometers; EDS system with full SEM imaging capabilities; nitrogen adsorption surface area and porosity analyzer; high performance liquid chromatograph with UV absorbance and liquid scintillation detectors; an annular flume; five intrinsic germanium gamma spectrometers; eight channel alpha spectroscopy system; digital X-ray radiography unit; Coulter multisizer automatic particle analyzer; rapid sediment analyzer. Computer facilities include laptop units for field use, work stations, a ~40 node cluster located on VIMS’ campus, and access to William & Mary’s SCI-CLONE supercomputer cluster.

The present facilities and equipment available in the department are described in more detail on the department website.