Stazione Zoologica

The Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn is a research institute in Naples, Italy, devoted to basic research in biology. Research is largely interdisciplinary involving the fields of evolution, biochemistry, molecular biology, neurobiology, cell biology, biological oceanography, marine botany, molecular plant biology, benthic ecology, and ecophysiology.

Founded in 1872 as a private concern by Anton Dohrn, in 1982 the Stazione Zoologica came under the supervision and control of the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (Ministry of Universities and Scientific and Technological Research) as a National Institute.

History

The idea

Dohrn's idea was to establish an international scientific community provided with laboratory space, equipment, research material and a library. This was supported and funded by the German Government, Thomas Henry Huxley, Charles Darwin, Francis Balfour and Charles Lyell among others. Dohrn provided a substantial sum himself. Running costs were paid from income derived from the bench system, the sale of scientific journals and specimens and the income from the public aquarium. This system was an important innovations in management of research and it worked.When Anton Dohrn died in 1909 more than 2,200 scientists from Europe and the United States had worked at Stazione Zoologica and more than 50 tables-per-year had been rented out.