Welcome to the official website of Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IO RAS). Our Institute is the oldest and the largest Russian research center in the field of oceanology.
The Institute deals with complex study of the World Ocean and the Russian seas. IO RAS is the only scientific center in Russia that conducts research in all areas of marine sciences, including physics, climatology, chemistry, biology and geology of the ocean. The subject of the Institute’s activity is the implementation of fundamental and applied research in the field of oceanology with the use of research fleet, aircraft, underwater and space vehicles and other technical means. Our Institute designs marine equipment for its research as well.
The Institute was established by a resolution of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1946 on the basis of the Oceanology Laboratory set up in 1941. Peter Shirshov became the Institute’s first Director. Together with P. Shirshov, the well-known scientists like Lev Zenkevich, Veniamin Bogorov, Semen Bruyevich, Alexei Dobrovolsky, Pamteleimon Bezrukov, Ivan Papanin, Vladimir Shtockman and others took an active part in the formation of the new scientific center.
Today, Shirshov Institute of Oceanology is an ensemble of 1,300 employees including 110 doctors of sciences and 276 candidates of sciences in several disciplines. There are 3 Full Members (Аcademicians) and 3 Corresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences among the Institute’s staff.
IO RAS affiliates the Atlantic Department in Kaliningrad, the Southern Department in Gelendjik, a branch office in St.-Petersburg, the North-Western Department in Arkhangelsk and the Caspian branch office in Astrakhan.
