Welcome to the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University. We are the State University of New York's center for marine and atmospheric research, education, and public service. Currently, there are more than 500 undergraduate and graduate students and 90 faculty and staff from 16 different nations working together to better understand how our marine, terrestrial, and atmospheric environments function and are related to one another. Research at SoMAS explores solutions to a variety of issues facing the world today ranging from local problems affecting the area around Long Island to processes that are impacting the entire globe.

The SoMAS faculty are internationally known for their leadership in research in both the atmospheric sciences and all the major disciplines of oceanography – biological, chemical, geological, and physical. The expertise of SoMAS faculty places them in the forefront in addressing and answering questions about immediate regional problems, as well as long-term problems relating to the global oceans and atmosphere. The primary focus of the SoMAS faculty and students is on fundamental research designed to increase understanding of the processes that characterize the coastal ocean and the atmosphere. But the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences is also committed to the applying research to solve problems that result from society's uses and misuses of the environment.

Our location on Long Island allows our students and faculty to explore and study a variety of habitats ranging from the open ocean to the largest metropolitan area in the United States, and to tap into resources at the nearby National Weather Service, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Laboratory of Cold Spring Habor. In addition to our presence on the main campus of Stony Brook University, SoMAS also operates research and educational facilities at the Stony Brook Southampton campus (including the Southampton Marine Station with access to the Atlantic Ocean) and the Flax Pond Marine Laboratory on Long Island Sound.

SoMAS became a school at Stony Brook University in 2007, but we have existed for more than 40 years as the Marine Sciences Research Center (MSRC) and the Institute for Terrestrial and Planetary Atmospheres (ITPA).