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[[underlined]] Rockville Facility of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center [[/underlined]]

Mr. Adams said that, after considerable review, he had arrived at the decision to close the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center at Rockville, Maryland effective November 14, 1986.

The facility, formerly known as the Radiation Biology Laboratory, had a budget of $2.3 million in fiscal year 1986, a scientific staff of eleven, and a support staff of 34. The staff carried out basic research on sunlight, its interactions with plants and animals, and the molecular mechanisms of the processes controlled by light.

The laboratory was established by Charles Greeley Abbot, the Institution's fifth Secretary, as the Division of Radiation and Organisms on May 1, 1929, within the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The division became an independent bureau of the Institution in 1965. After being housed in the Smithsonian Building for several decades, the laboratory moved to its current leased facilities in Rockville, Maryland in 1970.

Over the last decade and a half, the laboratory has functioned with a small staff engaged in competent photobiological research and solar monitoring. No major increases were sought during this period either for new staff or for requisite support.

In 1979, the Institution assembled an external visiting committee to assess the progress of this laboratory. The committee's report had high praise for certain lines of investigation, but criticism of others. A major issue in the review was the appropriate size of the organization; the committee felt that such a small research group tended to be isolated from the broader scientific community. The committee called for greater emphasis in developing external interaction and tougher